[imkevinxu]

TIL NB = "nota bene".

> N.B. is an abbreviation for the Latin nota bene, which means "note well." It is normally used at the beginning of a sentence in order to inform the reader that the following words are of great importance.

[minimaxir]

I had to stop using NB professionally because people kept asking what it meant. :(

[SilasX]

It seems to save a lot of hassle to just say "Note:" instead, rather than an obscure acronym that already has a non-obscure, short equivalent.

Reminds me of a forum I was on, where people would edit posts and preface the edit with "ETA:" (edited to add). But virtually every time someone had to ask what it meant, and eventually people started using "Edit:".

[mb_72]

Perhaps NB is more of a European thing? I see it here often, but never did once in Australia. That said, I don't consider NB close to being 'obscure'.

[ajdlinux]

Am Australian, I don't see it here much but I think most white-collar workers would definitely have seen it.

[mb_72]

Perhaps you are right - my 'problem' is that my parents are of an age were they studied Latin at High School, and as a result some of their education rubbed off on me; I no longer remember where I learned 'NB' (and other Latin miscellanea). Try living with parents who liked making witty and snarky comments in Latin about one and one's brother when one was trying to survive life as a nerdy teenager! :)

[selllikesybok]

Evidently Mr. Ringo's an educated man.

[djsumdog]

I have never seen it. Is it often used in legal text?

[selllikesybok]

It's more like a class signifier. People who have certain educational backgrounds, or read a lot of certain types of writing, are more likely to use it.

[travmatt]

Like the semi-colon; useful for showing you went to college.

[mark212]

no, not really. The most common latinism is "ibid" in its various forms, which is used to avoid repeating a full citation.

NB is used more like "i.e." or "e.g." in the US, from my experience.

[dboreham]

Everyone in the UK would know what it means. I doubt it is particularly common in legal documents. Probably something to do with having a decent proportion (>0.001%) of the population educated in the classics...