annotation
Meaning
A note or comment added to a text or diagram to explain or comment upon it.
The action or process of adding such notes.
Structure
Usage
The book's margins were filled with dense annotation.
The software allows for the digital annotation of images and PDFs.
His research involved the careful annotation of hundreds of historical documents.
Etymology
The word 'annotation' originates from the Latin verb 'annotare', meaning 'to note down' or 'to remark upon'. This verb is a compound of the prefix 'ad-' (meaning 'to') and the verb 'notare' (meaning 'to mark' or 'to note'), which itself derives from 'nota', a mark or sign. The core concept of making a mark to record information evolved through Medieval Latin and scholarly practice into the modern sense of adding explanatory or critical notes to a text. The suffix '-ation' was added in English to form the noun describing either the process or the resulting note, solidifying its abstract meaning related to commentary and explanation.
Analysis
annot (from Latin 'annotare', meaning 'to note down', itself from 'ad-' (to) + 'notare' (to mark)); ation (a suffix of Latin origin forming nouns of action or state).