The story
Latin: varia (feminine singular form of varius, “different”; whence various) + lectiō (“a reading”; whence lection) = “a different reading”
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
varia lectio
Today it means: Any one of the interpretations or readings of a given passage in a text which differ from copy to copy, from edition to edition, from manuscript to manuscript, or from translation to translation. Full definition →