In extenso means “full length” and is used to indicate that a document has been printed elsewhere. It can be used in literary and legal circles, often as a footnote or to direct readers to a full version of a work. It is often used in print media and can also appear as a link in digital media. The term originates from the Latin word extensus, meaning “to lengthen”.
The term in extenso comes from the Latin and literally means “full length”. It usually appears as a footnote and is used to indicate that the entire contents of a book, article, or other document has been printed elsewhere. It is used in both literary and legal circles, often at the end of a summary or excerpt, but can also be used to direct readers to a full version of a work whenever an abridged version of that work appears.
Often, literary magazines, professional journals, magazines, newspapers and other print media do not have the space to print an entire document. Instead, they might print an abridged version or print a “teaser” or excerpt, which is a short portion of the document. At the end of the abbreviated or abbreviated version, the publisher will print a short statement saying that the article or document can be found in extenso and will list where the entire document resides.
This could also occur within the body text of a research paper, non-fiction book, or legal document. A small part of a ruling or article might be cited within the journal and then printed out in full in the journal’s appendix or in another location, such as a website. The main purpose of this strategy is to use the shortened article as a reference, saving space within the document or brief. For example, a legal brief to persuade a judge to allow the admission of a particular piece of evidence might refer to a ruling admitting similar evidence in a similar case. The ruling could then be printed out in full as an appendix so that the judge could read the entire ruling if he so desired.
In the digital age, in extenso could appear as an enabled link or in front of a link to indicate that clicking will take the reader to the full version of the document. This can happen on a web page, blog, electronic article or other similar document. As with print media, this designation indicates that the version on the electronic page is not the full version.
The term comes from the Latin, originating from the word extensus, which means “to lengthen”. Many believe the actual term was first used in the late 1800s, but no positive attribution exists. It is similar to the phrase in totum, which is Latin for “in total”.
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