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Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 17:26:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: wsmith@wordsmith.org
To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--variorum
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variorum (var-ee-OR-um) noun

   1. An edition of the works of an author with notes by various scholars
      or editors.

   2. An edition containing various versions of a text.

adjective

   Of or relating to a variorum edition or text.

[From Latin (editio cum notis) variorum, (edition with the notes) of
various persons, genitive plural of varius, various.]

   "Howe asked the question, `Whose Emily Dickinson?' Though others have
   been asking it ever since, most scholars have continued to cite the
   Johnson variorum in their own work, and Johnson's 1960 one-volume
   Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, an edition of his edition, is the
   accessible paperback most readers know."
   Attempting the impossible, Women's Review of Books, Jan 1999.

This week's theme: words about books and writing.

.............................................................................
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
-Isaac Asimov, science-fiction writer (1920-1992)

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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/variorum.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/variorum.ram