codicil

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a legal document added to a will to explain, modify, add, or revoke a provision

   She signed a codicil leaving the painting to her niece.

2. 2
   noun

   formal: an addition or supplement to another document or statement

   The negotiators attached a short codicil to the treaty.

Through Middle French codicille from Latin codicillus, a diminutive of codex, 'book or written document.' The literal idea of a 'little document' became the legal term for a supplement that alters a will without replacing it.

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