gentilitial

comparative more gentilitial · superlative most gentilitial

1. obsoletespecific to a people; national
2. obsoletehereditary; entailed on a family
3. Synonym of gentilicial.

   The tribe, as its name (phyle) shows, had an ethnical or gentilitial origin.

   1965, François Chamoux, The Civilization of Greece, page 312

   2 more examples

   Occasionally – as for example in the paintings of the Tomb of the Inscriptions at Tarquinii – members of the gentilitial class to which the family of the dead man belonged may also be seen dancing.

   1955, Massimo Pallottino, The Etruscans, Penguin Books, published 1956, page 184

   Now, as Perikhanian observes, and as Khorenats‘i’s tradition confirms, the Is-pahbudhān were probably the original holders of the office of spāhbed, and as a result came to use the title of the office as their gentilitial name.

   2008, Parvaneh Pourshariati, Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran, I.B. Tauris & Co., published 2017, →ISBN

   Synonyms: gentilicial

plural gentilitials

1. Synonym of gentilicial.

   On the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian (May 1st 305) Maximinus Daia, nephew of the eastern caesar Galerius, became his Caesar and assumed upon himself his uncle’s gentilitials, Galerius Valerius.

   2001, Auction 21: Bronzes and fractions of Magna Graecia and Sicily Roman and Byzantine Coins, Editrice Compositori

   4 more examples

   The easy to remember and pronounce disyllabic gentilitials such as “Aztec,” “Toltec,” “Olmec,” and “Mixtec,” were readily accepted and have become so deeply entrenched that any attempt to replace them with putatively technically more correct terms would seem hopelessly doomed.

   1982, H. B. Nicholson, “The Mixteca-Puebla Concept Revisited”, in The Art and Iconography of late Post-Classic Central Mexico: A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks, October 22nd and 23rd, 1977, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, →ISBN, page 232

   The suffix -it was most likely added originally to root morphemes ending in -ī (e.g., Palaeosyrian ’à-rí-tum /harītum/, “pregnant”; Hebrew bəkīt, “crying”) and to gentilitials in -iy > ī (§29.41) in order to form their feminine (e.g. Mō’ābīt, “Moabite”) , although a formation with addition of -at > -ā(h) is also attested (e.g. Mō’ăbiyyā).

   1997, Edward Lipiński, Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta), Leuven: Peeters, →ISBN, page 226

   Ahout toponyma, the praedial Latin suffix -anus is frequent and recalls the gentilitials of the owners. But also “the suffix of Celtic origin - together with Roman gentilitials - -āko (and -ago as Romance derivative).”

   2003, Claudio Beretta, The Names of Rivers, Mounts, Sites: Prehistoric linguistic Structures, Ulrico Hoepli Editore S.p.A., →ISBN, page 112

   Finally, the presence of aristocratic tumuli (e.g. in the Monteroni necropolises) together with the existence, already in the Archaic period, of gentilitials associated with the local toponym (Alsaia) suggest that an aristocratic component was directly involved in the dynamics of territorial occupation.

   2017, Maria Cecilia D’Ercole, “Economy and trade”, in Alessandro Naso, editor, Etruscology, volume 1, De Gruyter, →ISBN, pages 148–149

   Synonyms: gentilicial