sb. pl.; also in Eng. form adversaries. [L. adj. pl. adversāria (sc. scripta) things written on the side fronting us (i.e., on one side of the paper), notes, a commonplace book; f. adversus: see ADVERSE. Prop. pl., but in Eng. usage often a collective sing.] A commonplace-book, a place in which to note things as they occur; collections of miscellaneous remarks or observations, = MISCELLANEA; also commentaries or notes on a text or writing.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 237. As P. Pœna in his Adversaries or Commentaries of plants hath noticed.
a 1685. Bp. Bull, Serm, x. Wks. 1846, I. 245 (J.). These [parchments] … were St. Paul’s adversaria.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Morhof speaks much of the use and advantages of such adversaria to men of letters.
1842. Whittock, Compl. Bk. Trades, 482. We never spent an hour more at our repose, than in silent attention to the political adversaria of this benevolent man.
