trophæal

UK/tɹəʊˈfiːəl/US/tɹoʊˈfi.əl/

adjective

Pertaining to a trophy or to trophies.

Meanings

adjectivetrophæal (not comparable)

alternative trophaeal · alternative trophaeall · alternative tropheal

  1. not comparableobsoletePertaining to a trophy or to trophies.

    He stiled himself thus Augustus Cæsar Octavianus Trophaeall.

    1646, John Gregory, Notes and Observations upon some Passages of Scripture, page 163
  2. not comparableobsoleteAdorned with trophies.

    Her streets of old did shine with trumphing Cæsars and Consuls in their trophæal Chariots.

    1660, Character of Italy, by an English Chyrurgion, page 6
  3. Romanhistoricalnot comparableErected without Senatical grant by a prevailing general as a trophy (or tropæum) commemorating a battle in which he was victorious; compare triumphal.
    2 more examples

    This place contains ſo many remarkable remains, and collections ſo curious, that we are ſorry to paſs by it curſorily. We adviſe the reader and the traveller to be leſs haſty. The trophæal arch and the ſepulchral monument, at Glanum Livii, a colony probably eſtabliſhed by M. Livius Druſus Libo, afford alſo ſeveral circumſtances, which will intereſt the attentive traveller.

    1788?: Tobias George Smollett [ed.], The Critical Review: or, Annals of Literature, volume 65, page 454

    […H]e would have ſeen with what an endeavour at accuracy (in pages 36, 7, 8) I have diſtinguiſhed trophæal monuments, erected on the fields of battle by the generals and their armies, from triumphal arches, erected by the authority of government, after theſe generals had been admitted to the honour of a triumph.

    1795, Thomas Pownall, An Antiquarian Romance, Endeavouring to Mark a Line, by Which the Most Ancient People, and the Processions of the Earliest Inhabitancy of Europe, May Be Investigated, page 197
  4. not comparableExhibited as a trophy of victory in war.

Origin

  1. Latintropaeum
  2. Englishtrophæal

From the Latin tropaeum, trophaeum (“trophy, monument to victory in war”); suffixing to the stem trophæ- the suffix -al.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

trophæal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/troph%C3%A6al

MLA

“trophæal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/troph%C3%A6al. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trophæal,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/troph%C3%A6al.

Source: trophæal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.