(1) Existing in name or form only and not in reality. (2) So small as to be unimportant; insignificant.

Something nominal exists only in name. So the nominal ruler in a constitutional monarchy is the king or queen, but the real power is in the hands of the elected prime minister. In the United Kingdom, the British monarch is also the nominal head of the Church of England; and those baptized in the Church who aren't really churchgoers might be called nominal Christians. A fee can be called nominal when it's small in comparison to the value of what it buys. So, for example, you might sell a friend a good piece of furniture for a nominal amount. And the charge for a doctor's visit might be a nominal $20, since most of the cost is covered by an insurance plan.

(1) A name or designation, or the act of naming. (2) A system of terms or symbols used in biology, where New Latin names are given to kinds and groups of animals and plants.

Various specialized fields have their own particular nomenclatures, or sets of terms. In particle physics, for instance, the elementary particles known as quarks, which are believed to come in pairs, have acquired such names as “up” and “down,” “strange” and “charm,” and “truth” and “beauty”—which is all most of us know about quarks and all we need to know. But *nomenclature* is used most often for the system of biological classification created by Linnaeus. In Linnaeus's system, each species has its own two- word name, the first word being the name of its genus. Thus, the genus *Equus* includes the horse *(Equus caballus)* and the mountain zebra *(Equus zebra).* But since broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage actually all belong to the same species *(Brassica oleracea),* they each need a third name to distinguish themselves.

(1) Marked with shame or disgrace; dishonorable. (2) Humiliating or degrading.

The Latin *nomen* could mean both “name” and “good reputation,” and even today we can say that someone who has been disgraced has “lost his good name.” With its negative prefix *ig-*, *ignominious* indicates the “namelessness” that goes with shame or dishonor. A person who suffers an ignominious fate may die nameless and forgotten. In the former Soviet Union, party leaders who fell out of favor, even if they avoided being imprisoned or executed, became nonpersons. Their names were removed from official records and history books and they were treated as if they had never existed.

A wrong name, or the use of a wrong name.

Historians have long noted that the Holy Roman Empire in its later years was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on nearby Breed's Hill. And the famous Woodstock Festival was actually held in the town of Bethel. But misnomers aren't limited to history. The Pennsylvania Dutch are actually of German ancestry. Koala bears aren't bears—they're marsupials. And in the world of food, the Rocky Mountain oyster, as diners have sometimes discovered too late, aren't really oysters.

A person of high birth or of good breeding and cultivation; an aristocrat.

A patrician was originally a descendant of one of the original citizen families of ancient Rome. Until about 350 B.C., only patricians could hold the office of senator, consul, or pontifex (priest). Later, the word was applied to members of the nobility created by the Roman emperor Constantine. As time went by, other nobles, such as those in medieval Italian republics and in German city-states, also came to be known as patricians. Today someone's appearance, manners, or tastes can be described as *patrician*, whether the person is actually of high birth or not. The actress Grace Kelly, an immigrant's daughter, was admired for her *patrician* beauty even before she became Princess Grace of Monaco, with classic features worthy of ancient Rome's finest sculptors.

(1) A family, group, or government controlled by a man or a group of men. (2) A social system in which family members are related to each other through their fathers.

With its root *-arch*, meaning “ruler, leader,” a *patriarch* is a man who dominates something, even if it's just a family. In Christianity, the term is used for a few leading figures who appear early in the Old Testament, including Methuselah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; in the Eastern Orthodox church, a patriarch is usually the equivalent of a bishop. Outside of the field of anthropology, *patriarchy* didn't start to be used much until the 1970s, when the women's movement gained a huge following. Many feminists have claimed that all Western societies are *patriarchal*—that is, that they systematically enable men to dominate women. But there's plenty of disagreement about how this is done, and the word isn't discussed as often as it used to be.

A person who has moved to a foreign land.

*Expatriate* combines the prefix *ex-,* “out of” or “away from,” with the Latin *patria,* “fatherland.” A famous colony of expatriates was the group of writers and artists who gathered in Paris between the two world wars, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. Unlike an exile or an emigrant, an expatriate's residence abroad is usually voluntary and extended but not permanent, and expatriates—often called *expats*—generally keep their original national identity and eventually end their self-imposed exiles by *repatriating* themselves.

Tending to supply the needs of or regulate the activities of those under one's control.

A good father shows *paternal* concern about his children, just as a good mother often acts out of *maternal* feeling. But *paternalistic* has a negative sound nowadays, since paternalistic people or institutions seek—often with decent intentions—to control many aspects of the lives of those under their control. In the 19th century, mill owners actually often provided cheap housing for the mill's employees. Today companies frequently have strict rules regarding personal appearance, or against marriages within the company. Colleges and universities used to practice a kind of *paternalism,* especially in trying to keep men and women out of each other's dorms, but a changing society has mostly put an end to that.