Appellative word meaning and definition

[noun] identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others
[adjective] inclined to or serving for the giving of names; "the appellative faculty of children"; "the appellative function of some primitive rites"
[adjective] pertaining to or dealing with or used as a common noun

\Ap*pel"la*tive\, a. [L. appellativus, fr. appellare: cf. F. appelatif. See {Appeal}.] 1. Pertaining to a common name; serving as a distinctive denomination; denominative; naming. --Cudworth. 2. (Gram.) Common, as opposed to {proper}; denominative of a class.
\Ap*pel"la*tive\, n. [L. appelativum, sc. nomen.] 1. A common name, in distinction from a proper name. A common name, or appellative, stands for a whole class, genus, or species of beings, or for universal ideas. Thus, tree is the name of all plants of a particular class; plant and vegetable are names of things that grow out of the earth. A proper name, on the other hand, stands for a single thing; as, Rome, Washington, Lake Erie. 2. An appellation or title; a descriptive name. God chosen it for one of his appellatives to be the Defender of them. --Jer. Taylor.

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