''Sine nomine'' (abbreviated s.n.) is a
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
expression, meaning "without a name". It is most commonly used in the contexts of publishing and
bibliographical listings such as
library catalog
A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliography, bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libra ...
s, to signify that the
publisher
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
(or distributor, etc.) of a listed work is unknown, or not printed or specified on the work. It is to be compared with ''
sine loco'' (''s.l.''), "without a place", used where the place of publication of a work is unknown or unspecified. While it may sometimes be used to disclose an unknown
authorship, this is more commonly indicated as ''
anon.'' or similar.
The phrase and its abbreviation have been deprecated in
Anglophone
The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...
cataloging
In library and information science, cataloging (American English, US) or cataloguing (British English, UK) is the process of creating metadata representing information resources, such as books, sound recordings, moving images, etc. Cataloging ...
with the adoption of the
Resource Description and Access
Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a standard for descriptive cataloging initially released in June 2010, providing instructions and guidelines on formulating bibliographic data. Intended for use by libraries and other cultural organization ...
standard, which instead prescribes the unabbreviated English phrase "publisher not identified" (or "distributor not identified", etc.). ''Sine loco'' is likewise replaced by "place of publication not identified".
See also
*''
Liber sine nomine''
*''
Missa sine nomine'', literally, a Mass without a name
References
External links
Latin meaning
{{Authority control
Latin words and phrases
Library cataloging and classification