Annotating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The method of enhancing a written work by incorporating remarks or explanations for greater comprehension is known as a specific activity
2. The act of adding notes or comments to a document to clarify or explain its contents
3. A process where remarks or explanations are inserted into a text for improved understanding

Etymology: The Latin verb "notare" meant "to mark" or "to note," and it gave English a family of words built on the idea of making a mark on something. "Annotate" comes from the past participle of "annotare," a variant of "adnotare," where the prefix "ad-" means "to" and so the sense is of marking something alongside or next to a text. The Latin root also gave English "note," "notary," and "notation," which trace the same notion of a visible mark carrying meaning. The verb "annotate" arrived in English as a scholarly term, and the earliest sense was of adding notes to a text rather than of the modern idea of commentary. A reader writing marginal comments in a book was, in effect, making a small mark that explained what the main text meant. The "-ing" ending simply turns the verb into a continuous action, so "annotating" describes the ongoing work of adding those remarks.

Synonyms: commenting, notating, marking