Other forms: footnotes
A footnote is a small note at the bottom of the page, marked by a number. Add a footnote, see the footnote, a long footnote.
It holds a source, a qualification or an aside that would break the flow of the main text. Endnotes do the same job at the back, and academic disciplines argue over which is better. Figuratively, a footnote to history is something minor that will be remembered only in passing. Note footnoted; and that some of the best writing in scholarship hides in footnotes.
1nounfootnoteA small note at the bottom of the page.
“The author explains where she found each quotation in a footnote.”
2nounminorA minor detail remembered only in passing.
“The scandal, once front-page news, is now just a footnote in history.”
footnote is an explanatory note.
Foot plus note, from the nineteenth century — the foot of the page rather than the foot of a person. Footer and footing use foot the same way.
From foot + note.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Academic English, Libraries & Museums