Dictionary

emendation en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌɛmənˈdeɪʃən/
• /ɪˌmɛnˈdeɪʃən/
• /ˌiːmɛnˈdeɪʃən/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English emendatioun, from Latin ēmendātiō; equivalent to emend + -ation. Piecewise doublet of amendation.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The act of altering for the better, or correcting what is erroneous or faulty; correction; improvement.
   • ‘Aye, aye,’ quoth she, and it will be observed that no emendation whatever is necessary to be made in these two initiative remarks, ‘Aye, aye! […] 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter I, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:
   • Then, less melodiously, dissenters of different sects issue a cantankerous emendation. 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:
2. (countable) Alteration by editorial criticism, as of a text so as to give a better reading; removal of errors or corruptions from a document.
   • After some deliberation I decided to publish this journal, with only such emendations and corrections as its hasty writing in camp necessitated. 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, “Preface”, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page iv:
   • The book might be improved by judicious emendations.
   • Thus he beheld her recede, and in the anguish of his heart quoted a line from a poet, with peculiar emendations of his own— God’s not in his heaven: All’s wrong with the world! 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXXVII, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:
   • Why, he had all the earmarks of a typewriter copyist, if you leave out the disposition to contribute uninvited emendations of your grammar and punctuation. 1889, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, New York, N.Y.: Charles L. Webster & Company, →OCLC:
3. (countable, uncountable) An intentional change in the spelling of a scientific name, which is usually not allowed.
   • The genus name Uramyia is an unjustified emendation of Uramya even though it uses a better transliteration of the Greek word μυῖα.

Forms

Deriveds

nonemendation

Synonyms

revision

Translations (6)

es enmendadura (the act of altering; alteration) · es enmendación (the act of altering; alteration) · es emendación (the act of altering; alteration) · es emienda (the act of altering; alteration) · es enmendamiento (the act of altering; alteration) · es enmienda (the act of altering; alteration)