anotación

Forms

anotación f (plural anotaciones)^[1] Old and early modern spellings include annotaçion, adnotaçion, annotatión and adnotación.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin annotātiō (“a noting down, remark, annotation”), a learned word.^[4][1][5] The Latin noun was also written adnotātiō, and is formed from the verb annotō (“to note down”) with the suffix -tiō.^[6][7][1]

Corominas places it, with the verb anotar (first recorded in 1605), in the family of nota and notar, from notō (“to mark, write down”).^[8] De Vaan finds the origin of nota (“mark, sign”) unclear: it cannot come from the root meaning “to know”, and Schrijver's derivation from the root of sentiō is only tentative.^[9]

The same Latin word gave Catalan anotació, French annotation and Italian annotazione.^[10] In Portuguese, Portuguese anotação is recorded from the 15th century;^[11][12] Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in Juan Fernández de Heredia, whose Gran crónica de España announces la sumaria annotaçión de los tiempos del imperio romano, “the summary record of the times of the Roman empire”, that is, how many years and how many emperors it lasted.^[2][13][3] The sense is a written note or list made from a longer text.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In 1492 Nebrija used the word in his Castilian grammar for the part the Greeks called etymology, which Cicero had rendered by a Latin word for “annotation”.^[2][5] By the mid-16th century it was used in the Americas for notes and glosses written in a margin, as in a document from Peru in 1554.^[14] In the 19th century it was defined as the action of noting, but was said to be used more often for the note itself.^[10][15]

Modern Spanish uses it for the act of noting something down, for the note made, and in law in anotación preventiva, a provisional entry in the property register.^[4][16][17] In baseball, in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, it names the play in which a runner reaches home plate and the record of such plays.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 1385 – Fernández de Heredia's Gran crónica de España has annotaçion.^[13][2]
• 1492 – Nebrija uses anotación in his Castilian grammar.^[2][5]
• 1554 – the first record from the Americas, in Peru, for notes written in a margin.^[14]
• 1605 – first record of the verb anotar.^[8]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin annotatio.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of noting something down; annotation.^[4][1]
2. A note written down, especially a comment in the margin of a text: El ejemplar tenía anotaciones a lápiz en cada página.^[7][17][1]
3. (law) In anotación preventiva: a provisional entry of a title in the property register, protecting a right until it is registered.^[4]
4. (baseball, Mexico, Central America, Caribbean) A run scored; the record of the runs.^[18][19]

Related words

• anotar
• nota
• notar
• Latin annotātiō
• Portuguese anotação

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. anotación
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. anotación
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. anotación
5. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 313
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 489
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nota
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 345
11. ^ a b Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 258
12. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. anotação
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. anotación
14. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. anotación
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 69
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. anotación
17. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. anotación
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. anotación
19. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. anotación