textus

Textus is a Latin noun meaning “text” or “woven fabric.” It belongs to the fourth declension (textus, -ūs) and originally referred to a fabric or woven structure. Over time its senses broadened to describe the body or main content of a thing, including written works. In scholarly usage, textus denotes the substantive content of a manuscript or edition, as opposed to paratexts, apparatus, or commentary.

In textual criticism and philology, the term is used to distinguish the actual words of a text from other editorial elements. Editors speak of reconstructing the true text from available witnesses, aiming to determine the most authentic text (often referred to when discussing a “critical text”) from a given textus. A well-known historical application is the Textus Receptus, a chain of editions of the Greek New Testament that became a standard basis for several early modern translations.

Outside scholarly contexts, textus also appears in discussions of classical literature and rhetoric to refer to the content or composition of a work. The modern English term text derives from this Latin root, reflecting the shift from physical fabric to the idea of the body of written content.

See also: Textual criticism, Textus Receptus, text.