prothonotary

English

Alternative forms

• protonotary

Etymology

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”).

Noun

prothonotary (plural prothonotaries)

1. (obsolete, historical) A chief legal clerk or notary in Roman Byzantium, and (hence) in Rome. [15th–19th c.]
2. (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. [from 15th c.]
3. 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. [from 17th c.]
   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 231:

     I accordingly did direct him how to enter an appearance with the prothonotary and to obtain a copy of the plaint or declaration.

   • 2012, Melissa F. Miller, 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.

4. (Greek Orthodox Church, historical) The chief secretary of the patriarch of Constantinople. [from 18th c.]

Derived terms

• prothonotary warbler