Commentary

How to spell commentary

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce commentary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does commentary mean?

1. nounA spoken description of an event as it happens, especially in sport or news broadcasting.
2. nounA set of written notes or analysis that explains or interprets a text or topic.

Commentary in a sentence

• The radio commentary kept listeners up to date with every goal.

• The scholar published a detailed commentary on the ancient poem.

• His calm commentary made the tense final easier to follow.

• Each chapter ends with a short commentary on the legal cases discussed.

Where does commentary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin commentarius, a noun meaning a notebook, memorandum, or set of explanatory notes. It was built on the verb commentari, meaning to think over, study carefully, or discuss, which in turn traces back to mens, the Latin word for mind, so the underlying idea is something the mind has turned over and recorded. Julius Caesar famously titled his account of the Gallic wars Commentarii, presenting it as plain field notes rather than grand history. English took the word in through Old French and Latin in the late medieval period, first for written explanatory notes on a text and later for the running spoken description heard in broadcasting. The doubled m, kept from the Latin com- prefix, and the unstressed -ary ending are the two spots where writers most often stumble.

How the word is built

• com- (intensive/with)
• ment (from mens: mind)
• -ary (noun suffix denoting a thing connected with)