prothonotary
nounEtymology From Middle English prothonotarie, from Medieval Latin protonotarius, from Byzantine Greek πρωτονοτάριος (prōtonotários), from Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos) + Byzantine Greek νοτάριος (notários), from Latin notārius (“notary”).
Historical, Obsolete A chief legal clerk or notary in Roman Byzantium, and (hence) in Rome.
Catholicism, Christianity, Roman Catholicism One of the seven prelates, constituting a college in the Roman Curia, whose office is to register pontifical acts and to make and preserve the official record of beatifications.
A registrar or chief clerk in various courts of law, especially (US) in a county court, (Australia) in certain state Supreme Courts, (Canada) in Federal Court.
- I accordingly did direct him how to enter an appearance with the prothonotary and to obtain a copy of the plaint or declaration.1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 231
- Prothonotary was a pretty impressive-sounding title for a clerk of court, but that’s how the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania rolled.2012, Melissa F. Miller, chapter 39, in Inadvertent Disclosure (The Sasha McCandless Series; Volume 1), e-book edition, Brown Street Books, →ISBN, page 7542:
Historical The chief secretary of the patriarch of Constantinople.
Greek Orthodoxy
- Derived terms
- prothonotaryship, prothonotary warbler