NOṬARIḲON (νοταρικόν; Latin, "notaricum," from "notarius" = "a
shorthand-writer"): A system of shorthand consisting in either
simply abbreviating the words or in writing only one letter of
each word. This system, used by the Romans in their courts of
justice for recording the proceedingsof the court (comp.
Benjamin Mussafia in his additions to the "'Aruk," s.v.), was
said by the Talmudists to have existed as early as the time of
Moses; and they held that the latter used it in the composition
of the Pentateuch. The law concerning noṭariḳon is the thirtieth
of the thirty-two hermeneutic rules laid down by Eliezer b. Jose
ha-Gelili for the interpretation of the Bible. Still, as Samson
of Chinon remarks ("Sefer Keritut," Preface), it was used in
haggadic interpretation only, not in halakic matters.Examples.
Interpretation by means of noṭariḳon is general in the pre-
Talmudic literature, in both Talmuds, in the Midrashim, and in
the later commentaries. But the term itself, while frequently
met with elsewhere, occur