to notify

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

1) To make known; to declare; to publish. 'The laws of God notify to man his will and our duty.'


2) To give information of. 'The allied sovereigns have notified the Spanish court of their purpose of maintaining legitimate government.'

3) To give notice to. 'The constable has notified the citizens to meet at the City Hall.' 'The bell notifies us of the time of meeting.'

The first of these senses, as Dr. Witherspoon long ago observed (Druid, No.5), is the only one in which this word is employed by English writers. They use it simply in the sense of the Latin notificare, i. e. 'to make known,' as in the following examples from Richardson:

His [Duke Robert's] worthie acts valentlie and fortunately atchieved against the infidels, are notified to the world by many and sundrie writers.--Holinshed.

Such protest must also be notified, within fourteen days after, to the drawer.--Blackstone, Com.

The two significations, Nos. 2 and 3, in which the direct object of the verb is the person instead of the thing, is in accordance with the French use of the verb notifier. It is not improbable that they will yet be adopted in England; for the same transfer of the idea from the thing to the person took place in the Latin language itself, in which the word notus, known, was also used in the sense of informed of, knowing.

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

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