Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something
Nothing was collected or created yet.
Nota bene
View on Wikipedia
Nota bene (/ˌnoʊtə ˈbɛneɪ, ˈbɛni, ˈbiːni/ NOH-tə BEN-ay, BEN-ee, BEE-nee;[1][2] plural: notate bene) is the Latin phrase meaning note well.[2] In manuscripts, nota bene is abbreviated in upper-case as NB and N.B., and in lower-case as n.b. and nb; the editorial usages of nota bene and notate bene first appeared in the English style of writing around the year 1711.[3][4][5] In Modern English, since the 14th century, the editorial usage of NB is common to the legal style of writing of documents to direct the reader's attention to a thematically relevant aspect of the subject that qualifies the matter being litigated.[6]
In medieval manuscripts, the editorial marks used to draw the reader's attention to a supporting text also are called nota bene marks; however, the catalogue of medieval editorial marks does not include the NB abbreviation. The medieval equivalents to the n.b.-mark are anagrams derived from the four letters of the Latin word nota, thus the abbreviation DM for dignum memoria ("worth remembering") and the typographic index symbol of the manicule (☞), the little hand that indicates the start of the relevant supporting text.[7]
See also
[edit]
- Annotation – Item of metadata attached to a document
- Cf. – Latin abbreviation meaning "compare"
- i.e. – Latin abbreviation meaning "that is"
- List of Latin abbreviations
- List of Latin phrases
- List of legal Latin terms
- q.v. – Latin phrase meaning "which see"
- viz. – Latin abbreviation meaning "namely"
References
[edit]- ^ "nota bene". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/2426898483. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
- ^ a b "nota bene". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. OCLC 1120411289. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
- ^ Addison, Joseph (1891). The Works of Joseph Addison. W. W. Gibbings. p. 283.
- ^ Addison, Joseph (2004). "No. 102 Wednesday, June 27, 1711". Project Gutenberg.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "nota bene". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
- ^ "nota bene". HM Courts & Tribunals Service – Glossary of terms – Latin. Her Majesty's Courts Service, United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
- ^ Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), p. 44.
 | This article related to Latin words and phrases is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |