What is "nota bene"

"mark well, observe particularly," c.1721, from Latin nota, second person singular imperative of notare "to mark" (see note (v.)) + bene "well" (see bene-). Often abbreviated N.B.

interj. (context imperative English) Take special note; ''used to add an aside or warning to a text''. n. 1 (context rare informal English) An instance of the phrase (term nota bene English) or its variant spellings. Also, By extension: 2 # Any indication similar in nature to (term nota bene). 3 # Something deserving of close attention or of careful notice.

n. a Latin phrase (or its abbreviation) used to indicate that special attention should be paid to something; "the margins of his book were generously supplied with pencilled NBs" [syn: NB, N.B.]

Nota bene (, or ; plural form notate bene) is a Latin phrase meaning "note well". The phrase first appeared in English writing circa 1711.

Often abbreviated as "N.B.", "N.b." or "n.b." (US English); "NB", "Nb" or "nb" (UK English) nota bene comes from the Latin roots notāre ("to note") and bene ("well"). It is in the singular imperative mood, instructing one individual to note well the matter at hand. In present-day English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the attention of the reader to a certain (side) aspect or detail of the subject on hand, translating it as "pay attention" or "take notice". While "N.B." is often used in academic writing, "note" is a common substitute.

The markings used to draw readers' attention in the medieval manuscripts are also called nota bene marks. The common medieval markings do not, however, include the abbreviation N.B.. The usual medieval equivalents are (1) anagrams from the four letters in the word nota, (2) the abbreviation D.M. from Dignum memoria (Worth remembering), or (3) a symbol of a little hand (☞), called a manicule, with the index finger pointing towards the beginning of the significant passage.

Nota Bene is an integrated suite of applications for writers and scholars. It operates on the Windows platform and comes in two major versions: Scholar's Workstation, and Lingua Workstation.

Both versions include:

• Nota Bene, the word-processing application
• Ibidem, a citation and bibliography manager
• Orbis, a text retrieval application.

The Scholar’s and Lingua workstations are in most respects identical, except that the Lingua version is fully functional in a number of non-Western languages and alphabets. [see below]