Nomenclator

Origin

From Latin nōmenclātor ("slave who told master names of persons master met"), from nōmen ("name") + calō ("call together").

Full definition of nomenclator

Noun

1. An assistant who specializes in providing timely and spatially relevant reminders of the names of persons and other socially important information.
• 63 b.c., Marcus Tullius Cicero Pro Lucio Murena: Oratio Ad Iudices, 1956, Page 115If he does not know them, it is deception to pretend that he does, while all the time he has never heard of them until instructed by the nomenclator.
• circa 20 Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Aubrey Stewart (translator), On Benefits: Addressed to Aebutius Liberalis, 1912, page 187Pray, do you suppose that those books of names, which your nomenclator can hardly carry or remember, are those of friends ?
• 1609, Ben Jonson, , Act IIIDaw. I have brought some ladies here to see and know you. My Lady Haughty he presents them severally, EPI. kisses them.—this my Lady Centaure — Mistress Dol Mavis — Mistress Trusty, my Lady Haughty's woman. Where's your husband ? let's see him: can he endure no noise? let me come to him.Mor. What nomenclator is this !True. Sir John Daw, sir, your wife's servant, this.
2. One who assigns or constructs names for persons or objects or classes thereof, as in a scientific classification system.
• 1969, Reginald Townsend Townsend, "What's in a Name?", in This, That, and the Other Thing, page 27The nomenclator's method is first to look about and see if the place has any natural features to suggest a name—like Rocking Stone Farm or White Birches.
3. A document containing such name assignments.

Synonyms

• (document containing names) vocabulary, glossary

Related terms

• nomenclature