Notary

How to spell notary

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce notary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does notary mean?

1. nounA person legally authorised to witness signatures and certify the authenticity of documents.

Notary in a sentence

• The loan papers must be signed in front of a notary.

• She booked an appointment with a notary to certify the property deed.

Where does notary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin notarius, the title of a clerk or secretary who took down dictation, built on the noun nota meaning a 'mark', 'sign' or 'written note'. In ancient Rome a notarius was originally a shorthand writer who recorded speech using quick marks, and the role gradually grew into that of an official who drew up and witnessed legal documents. English took the word in during the 1300s, partly through Old French notarie, to describe an officer authorised to certify deeds and contracts. The same nota root sits behind the everyday words 'note', 'notation' and 'notice', which is a useful reminder that a notary is fundamentally someone who makes things officially noted. The spelling keeps the single 't' and the '-ary' ending, the trap being that the second vowel is an unstressed schwa that gives no clue whether to write -ary, -ery or -ory.

How the word is built

• not- (from Latin nota: mark, sign, note)
• -ary (agent/role suffix)