appellativus

Appellativus is a term used in linguistics and Latin grammar to refer to an appellative, i.e., a common noun that names a class of objects rather than a single, specific entity. The word derives from Latin appellativus, from appellare “to call or name.” In Latin grammars and in descriptive linguistics, appellativus is used to describe words that function as general names, as opposed to proprium (a proper name) which designates a unique entity.

In practice, an appellativus corresponds to the semantic category of common nouns in English; for example “dog,” “city,” or “book” name kinds of things, not a particular dog, city, or book. These words are typically inflected for number, case, and gender in languages that mark them, and they may bear definite or indefinite articles in languages that use them. In English, capitalization is a convention for proper nouns, while appellatives are typically lowercase.

The distinction between appellatives and proper names is cross-linguistically widespread and underlies certain typological themes, such as the morphosyntactic behavior of nouns, the formation of definite references, and how dictionaries and grammars classify lexical entries. In modern linguistic usage, “appellative” is the common English term; “appellativus” is primarily a Latin form used in scholarly discussions of Latin grammar or in cross-linguistic descriptions that reference Latin terminology.