A person who adds explanatory notes, comments, or marks to a text, document, image, or other material to clarify or provide additional information.
From Latin 'annotator' (one who annotates), derived from 'annotare' (to write upon). The suffix '-tor' creates agent nouns in Latin, and English adopted this term directly in medieval times for scholars who added notes to manuscripts.
The greatest annotators in history—like Henry David Thoreau, who filled his library books with marginalia—were essentially creating dialogue with dead authors; digital marginalia tools now let millions of readers become annotators simultaneously, democratizing what was once a solitary scholar's practice.
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