Amendation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of correcting or improving a text by removing errors ; the process of taking faults out of something to make it better
2. Revising a written work to fix mistakes ; eliminating defects from an object or system so that it becomes sounder
3. An emendation made to a document to set right its errors ; the purging of flaws or imperfections from a thing

Etymology: "Amendation" is a plain formation: the verb "amend," which came into English from Old French "amender" (from Latin "emendare," to free from fault), combined with the suffix "-ation," which forms nouns of action or process. It is a doublet of "emendation," meaning the two words descend from the same Latin root but reached English by different routes, one through French and one through Latin directly. The two forms have divided the work between them. "Amendation" has kept closer to the everyday sense of "amend," so it often suggests setting something right in a general way, while "emendation" has become the standard term for the careful correction of a text, such as a manuscript or edition. Both share the core idea of removing faults, and the older Latin root "emendare" literally carried the sense of freeing something from error.

Synonyms: amendment, emendation, correction