Notify

Notify

Verb · /ˈnəʊ.tɪ.faɪ/

Definition

To inform someone officially or formally; to make known; to give notice of; to report to an authority.

Origin

From Old French notifier and Latin notificare (to make known: notus, known + facere, to make). Notus from noscere (to come to know), from Proto-Indo-European *gneh₃- (to know) — the same root as know, knowledge, notice, notion, notorious, and noble. Notificare therefore meaning to make known, to cause something to be known. The word entering English in the fifteenth century. The formal-legal register of notify distinguishing it from tell or inform: one notifies authorities, insurance companies, next of kin — contexts requiring official record.