Etymology

obiter scriptum

Today it means: A smaller piece, written during the process of writing a larger piece, which is supplementary or incidental to that larger piece; something written on the way to writing something else; a subsidiary composition or publication. Full definition →

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The story

From Latin: obiter scrīptum (“[a thing] written on the way”), from obiter (“on the way, incidentally”) + scrīptum (“text, anything written, writing”). Formed on the pattern of the earlier obiter dictum, with which it is often paired (especially in the plural).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.