Plural of commentary; written or spoken explanations and interpretations of texts, events, or ideas.
From Latin 'commentarius' (notebook, journal), derived from 'commentari' (to reflect upon). The plural form became standardized in English by the 14th century to describe collections of explanatory notes.
The tradition of writing commentaries goes back to ancient Rome, where scholars would write notes in the margins of texts—those margin notes eventually became so important they were published as separate books that were sometimes longer than the original!
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