marginalia means notes in the margin of a document. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.
marginalia is pronounced /mɑɹd͡ʒɪˈneɪli.ə/.
Why “marginalia” is a great word
MARGINALIA — [Noun] Notes, comments, or embellishments written in the margins of a book or document. From New Latin marginalia, from Medieval Latin neuter plural of marginalis ("marginal, on the periphery"), from Latin margō ("border, edge"). First attested in English in 1832. Unlike "annotation" (a formal, explanatory note, often scholarly and part of the text's apparatus) or "footnote" (a prescribed, detached reference placed at the page's end), marginalia is the intimate, spontaneous conversation held in a text's peripheral space. It is the pencil-scrawled "Yes!" beside a line of poetry, the meticulous doodle of ivy curling around a chapter title, or the quiet debate with a long-dead philosopher—a testament to the solitary act of thought brushing against the permanence of print, and the persistent proof of a mind having been there.
noun
- Notes in the margin of a document.“We know what the composer was thinking as he wrote the piece because we can read his handwritten marginalia on the manuscript.”