emendation - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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

• IPA(key): /ˌiːmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, /ˌɛmənˈdeɪʃən/, /ɪˌmɛnˈdeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

emendation (countable and uncountable, plural emendations)

1. (uncountable) The act of altering for the better, or correcting what is erroneous or faulty; correction; improvement.
   • 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter I, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:
     ‘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! […]
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.
   The book might be improved by judicious emendations.
   • 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:
     After some deliberation I decided to publish this journal, with only such emendations and corrections as its hasty writing in camp necessitated.
   • 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:
     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!
3. (zoology, taxonomy) 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.

• revision

• nonemendation

• denominate