nomen appellativum

nomen appellativum (plural nomina appellativa)

1. (grammar, rare) common noun
   • 1825, George Walker (translator, editor), I. J. G. Scheller (German author), A copious Latin grammar. Translated from the German, with alterations, notes and additions. In two volumes. Vol. I., London, p. 38:

     But a name which belongs to several things of one kind is called a common name (nomen appellativum); as flumen, flood; rex, king; homo, man.

   • 2002, Oswald Bayer, “Hermeneutical Theology. In: Petr Pokorný”, in Jan Roskovec, editor, Philosophical Hermeneutics and Biblical Exegesis: Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 153, Mohr Siebeck, page 112f:

     Not only because 'omnipotence' as a single property is found in the creed, but because 'omnipotence' as a single property is found in the creed, but because it is more appropriate and revealing perhaps than 'absolute causality' (Schleiermacher) or 'infinity' (Pannenberg appealing to Gregory of Nyssa) which for reasons internal to theology makes it possible to engage with the study of religions and philosophy of religion; and might make concrete a provisional paraphrase of the word 'God' understood as a nomen appellativum, not least as it is used in the term 'all-determining reality'.

   • 1844, J. G. Kohl, Austria. Vienna, Prague, Hungary, Bohemia, and the Danube; Galicia, Styria, Moravia, Bukovina, and the military frontier, London, page 427:

     The name "Huzzulen" is probably only used in Bukovina and Moldavia. It is derived from the old Davian word "Huzz," which signifies robber, and may therefore originally, like many other names of nations, have rather been used as a Nomen Appellativum than as a Nomen proprium.

   • 1855, Leonhard Schmitz (translator, editor), C. G. Zumpt (German author), A Grammar of the Latin Language. Translated from the ninth edition of the original, and adapted to the use of English students. Fourth edition, London, p. 26:

     NOUNS substantive are either proper (nomina propria), i. e. the names of one particular person or thing, or common (nomina appellativa), i. e. such as denote persons or things in so far as they belong to a class.

   • 1982, Lauge Olaf Nielsen, Theology and Philosophy in the Twelfth Century: A Study of Gilbert Porreta's Thinking and the Theological Expositions of the Doctrine of the Incarnation during the Period 1130-1180, Leiden, page 335:

     According to the theologians of the school the name Christus, on the basis of this view, would have to be attributed to two substances and would therefore be a nomen appellativum and not proprium, since a nomen proprium an be attributed only to one substance, just as one person can only be one substance.

   • 1995, Peter C. Hodgson, editor, Hegel: Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. Volume II: Determinate Religion, page 505:

     Jupiter is, generally speaking, a nomen appellativum, and there are three or four hundred uses of the name—Jupiter Stator, Capitolinus, and so on.