The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prothonotary \Pro*thon"o*ta*ry\ (pr[-o]*th[o^]n"[-o]*t[als]*r[y^]), or Protonotary \Pro*ton"o*ta*ry\ (pr[-o]*t[o^]n"[-o]*t[als]*r[y^]), n.; pl. -ries (pr[-o]*th[o^]n"[-o]*t[als]*r[i^]z). [LL. protonotarius, fr. Gr. prw^tos first + L. notarius a shorthand writer, a scribe: cf. F. protonotaire.]
A chief notary or clerk. `` My private prothonotary.''
--Herrick.Formerly, a chief clerk in the Court of King's Bench and in the Court of Common Pleas, now superseded by the master. [Eng.]
--Wharton. Burrill.A register or chief clerk of a court in certain States of the United States.
(R. C. Ch.) Formerly, one who had the charge of writing the acts of the martyrs, and the circumstances of their death; now, one of twelve persons, constituting a college in the Roman Curia, whose office is to register pontifical acts and to make and preserve the official record of beatifications.
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(Gr. Ch.) The chief secretary of the patriarch of Constantinople.
Prothonotary warbler (Zo["o]l.), a small American warbler ( Protonotaria citrea). The general color is golden yellow, the back is olivaceous, the rump and tail are ash-color, several outer tail feathers are partly white.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 A chief clerk of one of various court of law. 2 The chief secretary of the patriarch of Constantinople. 3 One who had the charge of writing the acts of the martyrs, and the circumstances of their death. 4 One of twelve persons, constituting a college in the Roman Curia, whose office is to register pontifical acts and to make and preserve the official record of beatifications.
Wikipedia
The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. prothonotarius (c. 400), from Greek protonotarios "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the Byzantine Empire, from Greek protos "first" + Latin notarius ("notary"); the -h- appeared in Medieval Latin. The title was awarded to certain high-ranking notaries.
Usage examples of "prothonotary".
There were present Monseigneur Krasinski, the Prince-Bishop of Warmia, the Chief Prothonotary Rzewuski, whom I had known at St.
Amongst others was Rzewuski, the royal Prothonotary, whom I had known at St.
I was somewhat anxious about the loan, so, before its maturity, I took the note and filed it with the prothonotary at Erie, Pennsylvania, and he entered judgment, which became a lien on her property.
I question if anyone knew of that transaction besides the makers of the note and the prothonotary at Erie.
Memoirs of Giacome Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt, Knight of the Golden Spur, Prothonotary Apostolic, and Scoundrel Cosmopolitic.
All the birds I saw, which were prothonotary warblers, were descended from a single pair released back then.
He was the sole salesman, and had been since Nineteen-hundred and Thirty-one, He was the man who had released from the hot cage of his hands and into this enchanted space the first two prothonotary warblers.
The song of a prothonotary warbler is notoriously monotonous, as I am the first to admit.
I am not about to risk the credibility of my entire tale by claiming that prothonotary warblers rival the Boston Pops Orchestra with their songs.
We accordingly set out the next day, and got to Spa in good time, our company consisting of the princess, the prothonotary, Roniker, and the Tomatis.
When their verdict had been inspected by the judge it was given to the prothonotary to read.
The prothonotary will endorse a simple return on the writ, setting forth the production of the boy, and you may sign it.
The document is signed by the judge and stamped in red ink and certified by the Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of the City of Philadelphia and legal in every state of the union and those countries with the appropriate treaties with the United States, a group in which, fortunately, Belize is included.
See the troubles of the year 1484, and the death of the prothonotary Colonna, in tom.
Somewhere along the stream a pileated woodpecker began drumming against a tree trunk in search of an insect snack and the racket startled a pair of prothonotary warblers from their roost in a nearby hackberry sapling.