Other forms: notations
Notation is the agreed set of symbols a field writes in — musical notation, mathematical notation, chess notation. It is not the ideas themselves but the code they are written down in.
The point of a notation is that it is shared: two people who know it can read the same marks the same way, across centuries and languages, which is why a Bach manuscript is playable and a chess game from 1851 is replayable. Each field's notation has to be learned separately and none of them transfers. Note that notation is usually uncountable — standard notation, in this notation — and that a notation, countable, means a single note written down.
1nounnotationA system of written symbols used in a particular field.
“The piece is written in standard musical notation.”
synonyms: symbols, system
2nounshortA short note written down.
“There was a notation in the margin in pencil.”
notation is a system of symbols.
Latin notatio meant a marking or noting, from nota, a mark — the same root as note, notice and notable. A notation is a system of marks, and the word has never meant anything else.
Latin
notātiō
English, today
notation
From Latin notātiō, equivalent to notate + -ion or note + -ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Academic English, Music & Instruments, Chess & Card Games