▪ I. forename, n.
(ˈfɔəneɪm)
[f. fore- prefix + name.]
A person's first or ‘Christian’ name; in Rom. Ant. = prænomen.
| 1533 Cath. Parr tr. Erasm. Comm. Crede 74 The name and the forename of Pylate. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. 320 His sonne, carrying the same fore-name [Bartholomew]. a 1656 Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 753 It was provided by an Edict, that none of that family should have the forename of Marcus. 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. Crit. Hist. 99 The Ancient Roman Women had a Fore-name, or a Christen-Name besides their Sir Name. 1870 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 34 The counsellor whose name is Reason, whose forename is Interest. 1883 Academy 15 Dec. 394 Mary Martha Brooke, whose twofold fore-name is intended to symbolise her character. |
| transf. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 519 This place [Cole Ouerton] hath a Cole prefixed for the fore name. |
▪ II. † ˈforename, v. Obs.
[f. fore- prefix + name v.]
trans. a. To name or mention beforehand. b. To give a name to beforehand.
| 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God v. xvi. (1620) 209 The vertues of such worthies as we forenamed. a 1633 Austin Medit. (1635) 53 Behold a Virgin shall conceave A Sonne, fore nam'd Emmanuel. |
Hence ˈforenamed ppl. a., named or mentioned before; fore-cited.
| 1490 Caxton Eneydos xiii. 47 The two sustres fore named. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 317 This foirnamit king. 1628 T. Spencer Logick 224 The forenamed Axiomes are compounded of simple axiomes. 1737 Whiston Josephus' Antiq. viii. xi. §1 The woman..grieved at the death of the fore-named child. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 30 Flour which is mixed with the fore-named adulterations. |
| absol. or ellipt. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. i. 2 Besides the two forenamed there is found a thirde kinde. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. i. §7 Besides the fore-named, they had Neptune. |