praetexta

American  

[pree-tek-stuh] / priˈtɛk stə /

Or pretexta

noun

plural

praetextae

1. (in ancient Rome) a white toga with a broad purple border, worn by priests and magistrates as an official costume, and by certain other Romans as ceremonial dress.

2. a similar garment worn by a boy until he assumed the toga virilis, or by a girl until she married.

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Etymology

Origin of praetexta

1595–1605; < Latin, short for toga praetexta literally, bordered toga. See pretext

Example Sentences

Why are we not all clad in the praetexta?

From The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 by Cicero, Marcus Tullius

Besides these, Ennius probably wrote a praetexta on ‘the Rape of the Sabines’; and his Ambracia is probably a praetexta on the capture of the town by M. Fulvius Nobilior in B.C.

From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by Middleton, George

Its chief interest lies in the fact that it is the one surviving example of a fabula praetexta, or tragedy, drawn from Roman life.

From Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal by Butler, Harold Edgeworth

There are eight complete tragedies and one praetexta, the Octavia, which is generally supposed to be by a later hand, as well as considerable fragments from the Thebais and Phoenissae.

From The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius by Cruttwell, Charles Thomas

Its only interest is as the single extant specimen of the fabula praetexta, or drama with a Roman subject and characters.

From Latin Literature by Mackail, J. W. (John William)