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From: "Kevin Dye" <>
Subject: Re: op. cit., idem, and ibid
Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 13:37:38 -0700


Singhals <> wrote:
>
> I *KNOW* we only use ibid today, but in the past and in many of the
> older books I use, all three are used.


Cheryl obviously already knows, but for those who may be mystified
by the question, these three Latin terms were commonly used to avoid
redundant text in scholarly notes of generations past.

"op. cit." abbreviates the Latin "opere citato", which means "in the
work (previously) cited".

"ibid." abbreviates the Latin "ibidem", which means "from the same
place".

"idem" is Latin for "the same".

A note contains three parts: author, work, and citation (typically
just a page number). The first time a given work was cited, title
and publication data was to be given in full. Thereafter, it was
deemed sufficient to name just the author and page, substituting
"op. cit." for the long-winded title and publication info. The
substitution was done in all subsequent notes regardless of whether
they were consecutive. When two consecutive notes referred to the
same work, it was deemed proper to go one step further, and avoid
repeating the author's name by substituting "ibid." for both author
and title, giving only a new page number. Sometimes, even the page
number might be the same as the preceding entry, in which case
"Idem" was used as the entire note, effectively meaning "ditto".

I think Cheryl raises this question to make me feel old <g>. I was
trained in these methods in high school, but by the time I got to
college no one any longer seemed interested in their use.

-- Kevin

"Kevin Dye" <>

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