apostils
|a-pos-til|
🇺🇸
/əˈpɑːstɪl/
🇬🇧
/əˈpɒstɪl/
(apostil)
an added note or attached certificate
Etymology
'apostille' originates from French, specifically the word 'apostille', which in turn comes from Medieval Latin 'apostilla', a diminutive form related to Latin 'appositus' (past participle of 'adponere') where 'ad-' meant 'to' and 'positus' meant 'placed'.
'apostilla' (Medieval Latin) passed into Old/Modern French as 'apostille' and was borrowed into English as 'apostille' (and variant spelling 'apostil'), eventually producing the modern English noun 'apostille' and its variant plural forms such as 'apostilles' and 'apostils'.
Initially it meant 'a little thing placed beside' or 'a short added note' (an appended gloss), but over time it also came to mean the formal certificate attached to a public document used to authenticate it internationally; both senses survive with the certification sense dominant in legal contexts.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
an official certificate (attached to a public document) authenticating the signature or seal, commonly issued under the Hague Apostille Convention.
Many countries require apostils on foreign birth and marriage certificates before accepting them for legal use.
Synonyms
Noun 2
a brief explanatory note or marginal gloss added to a text (archaic or literary use).
The scholar collected several apostils in the margins of the medieval manuscript.
Synonyms
Last updated: 2025/09/22 05:52