prothonotary

English

Alternative forms

• protonotary

Etymology

From Middle English prothonotarie, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Medieval Latin prothonotarius, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin protonotarius, from Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos) + (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin notarius (“secretary”)

Noun

prothonotary (plural prothonotaries)

1. A chief clerk of one of various courts of law.
   • Herrick

     Can I not sin, but thou wilt be / My private prothonotary?

   • Melissa F. Miller (2012) chapter 39, in Inadvertent Disclosure (The Sasha McCandless Series; Volume 1), e-book edition, Brown Street Books, →ISBN, page 7542: “Prothonotary was a pretty impressive-sounding title for a clerk of court, but that’s how the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania rolled.”

1. The chief secretary of the patriarch of Constantinople.
2. One who had the charge of writing the acts of the martyrs, and the circumstances of their death.
3. One of twelve persons, constituting a college in the Roman Curia, whose office is to register pontifical acts and to make and preserve the official record of beatifications.

Derived terms

• prothonotary warbler