proprium

From Latin proprium (“of one's own”).

proprium (plural propria)

1. (philosophy) A property that applies to all members of a species and only to them, serving to distinguish the species from other species within the same genus, yet is not part of the true definition or the essence of the species.
   • Abraham Stone, Humanities 116: Philosophical Perspectives on the Humanities, people.ucsc.edu[1]:

     (So you can use a proprium to pick out a species—for example, you could say: “a human is a risible mortal animal”—but, in that case, you aren’t picking out the species by its true definition.)

2. (theology) selfhood
   • 1758, Emanuel Swedenborg, The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine:

     Man of himself, so far as he is under the influence of his proprium, is worse than the brutes. If man should be led by his own proprium, he could not possibly be saved.

• nomen proprium

• “proprium”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “proprium”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “proprium”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Compare German Nomen proprium (from Latin nomen proprium), Danish proprium and Slovak proprium.

• IPA^(key): [ˈproprɪjum]

proprium n

1. proper noun

   Synonym: vlastní jméno

   Antonym: apelativum

• “proprium”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “proprium”, in Akademický slovník cizích slov at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz [Academic dictionary of foreign words] (in Czech), 1995

From Latin (nōmen) proprium, neuter of proprius (“own, individual”).

proprium n (singular definite propriet, plural indefinite proprier)

1. (grammar) proper noun (the name of a particular person, place, organization or other individual entity)

• egennavn

proprium

1. inflection of proprius:
   1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
   2. accusative masculine singular

• "proprium", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

proprium n (definite singular propriet, indefinite plural proprier, definite plural propria or propriene)

1. (grammar) proper noun
2. (Christianity) part of mass which is particular to the date or situation

   Coordinate term: ordinarium

proprium n (definite singular propriet, indefinite plural proprium, definite plural propria)

1. (grammar) proper noun
2. (Christianity) part of mass which is particular to the date or situation

   Coordinate term: ordinarium

Learned borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin prōprium.

• IPA^(key): /ˈprɔ.prjum/
• Rhymes: -ɔprjum
• Syllabification: pro‧prium

proprium n

1. (Roman Catholicism) proper (part of the Christian liturgy that varies according to the date, either representing an observance within the liturgical year, or of a particular saint or significant event)

• proprium in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From Latin (nōmen) proprium, neuter of proprius (“own, individual”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈprɔpri̯um]

proprium n (relational adjective propriálny)

1. (grammar) proper noun

• “proprium”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025