Supra (grammar)
academic or legal citation signal
Supra (Latin for "above") is an academic and legal citation signal used when a writer desires to refer a reader to an earlier-cited authority.
For example, an author wanting to refer to a source in their third footnote could cite this as: "See supra note 3". Or for text in that note: "See supra text accompanying note 3". Traditionally Vide (Latin for "see" or more broadly "perceive") would be used instead of see, so those citations would instead be written as "Vide supra — note 3" and "Vide supra — text accompanying note 3".
Supra can also be used to provide a short form citation to an earlier (but not immediately preceding) authority. For example:
Stephen J. Legatzke, Note, The Equitable Recoupment Doctrine in United States v. Dalm: Where's the Equity, 10 Va. Tax Rev. 861 (1991).
Legatzke, supra note 1, at 862.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Supra (grammar)” is academic or legal citation signal. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Supra, grammar and academic, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “academic or legal citation signal” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7644661. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1991.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Supra (grammar)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Supra (grammar) primary sources, Supra (grammar) archive and Supra research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Supra (grammar)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Supra (grammar)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.