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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Appellative

Appellative \Ap*pel"la*tive\, a. [L. appellativus, fr. appellare: cf. F. appelatif. See Appeal.]

  1. Pertaining to a common name; serving as a distinctive denomination; denominative; naming.
    --Cudworth.

  2. (Gram.) Common, as opposed to proper; denominative of a class.

Appellative

Appellative \Ap*pel"la*tive\, n. [L. appelativum, sc. nomen.]

  1. A common name, in distinction from a proper name. A common name, or appellative, stands for a whole class, genus, or species of beings, or for universal ideas. Thus, tree is the name of all plants of a particular class; plant and vegetable are names of things that grow out of the earth. A proper name, on the other hand, stands for a single thing; as, Rome, Washington, Lake Erie.

  2. An appellation or title; a descriptive name.

    God chosen it for one of his appellatives to be the Defender of them.
    --Jer. Taylor.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
appellative

mid-15c., from Latin appellativus, from appellat-, past participle stem of appellare (see appeal). As a noun, attested from 1590s.

Wiktionary
appellative

a. 1 (context grammar English) Of or pertaining to a common noun. 2 Of or pertaining to ascribing name. n. 1 A common noun. 2 An epithet.

WordNet
appellative
  1. adj. pertaining to or dealing with or used as a common noun

  2. inclined to or serving for the giving of names; "the appellative faculty of children"; "the appellative function of some primitive rites" [syn: naming(a)]

  3. n. identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others [syn: appellation, denomination, designation]

Usage examples of "appellative".

Nonetheless, despite his unfortunate appellative and annoying eagerness to make a mark, Glick was sweet .

The alphabet is general property, and everyone has the right to use it for the creation of a word forming an appellative sound.

Do simple poetical phrases, descriptive of heavenly phenomena, remain current in the popular mouth after the meanings of appellatives (Bright One, Dark One, &c.

People, he thinks, in making riddles 'would avoid the ordinary appellatives, and the use of little-known names in most mythologies would thus find an intelligible explanation.

Chickens offered their breasts: pies hinted savoury secrets: things mystic, in a mash, with Gallic appellatives, jellies, creams, fruits, strewed the table: as a tower in the midst, the cake colossal: the priestly vesture of its nuptial white relieved by hymeneal splendours.

This is the burden of Jeremy Bentham's quarrel with "question-begging appellatives.

Some times these appellatives were derived from some distinctiveness of dress, as in the case of "Dunga ree Jack".

Takooka was by far the most common of my appellatives, but I answered to them all.