variorum

[ vair-ee-awr-uhm, -ohr- ]

adjective
  1. containing different versions of the text by various editors: a variorum edition of Shakespeare.

  2. containing many notes and commentaries by a number of scholars or critics: a variorum text of Cicero.

noun
  1. a variorum edition or text.

Origin of variorum

1
1720–30; short for Latin ēditiō cum notīs variōrum edition with the notes of various persons

Words Nearby variorum

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How to use variorum in a sentence

  • Boswell's Malone, the "third variorum" edition, is generally considered the best.

    Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson | Thomas Babington Macaulay
  • It occurs in several later miscellanies; and in the variorum translation of Anacreon published at Oxford in 1683.

  • Unwed, unfancied, ware of wiles, they fingerponder nightly each his variorum edition of The Taming of the Shrew.

    Ulysses | James Joyce
  • The affray was repeatedly mentioned in Parliament, where the changes rung upon it produced quite a variorum edition of horrors.

    Bits of Blarney | R. Shelton Mackenzie
  • This edition, now in progress, and Malone's variorum edition of 1821, are the most valuable in furnishing information.

    Tragedy | Ashley H. Thorndike

British Dictionary definitions for variorum

variorum

/ (ˌvɛərɪˈɔːrəm) /


adjective
  1. containing notes by various scholars or critics or various versions of the text: a variorum edition

noun
  1. an edition or text of this kind

Origin of variorum

1
C18: from Latin phrase ēditiō cum notīs variōrum edition with the notes of various commentators

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012