Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “notary” come from?

Notary comes from Old French notarie, from Latin notarius, an agent noun derived from notare, meaning to mark or note, ultimately from the root noscere, meaning to know.

notary (English): A lawyer of noncontentious private civil law who...

Definitions

  1. A lawyer of noncontentious private civil law who...

Ancestry of “notary”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchnotariewitness; secretary; notary
2Latinnotariusnotary; clerk, secretary; writer of shorthand;...
3Latin-ārius—
4Proto-Italic*-āzios—

Words derived from “notary”

  • notarial
  • notarially
Every word from Proto-Italic *-āzios →