Why is something or someone deemed unimportant referred to as being “just a footnote” when footnotes tend to refer to significant earlier works that support an argument?

Question

Why is something or someone deemed unimportant referred to as being “just a footnote” when footnotes tend to refer to significant earlier works that support an argument?

In: Culture

Answer 1

Most people will skip over the footnotes because they are not trying to deeply understand it–for them, it is sufficient to scan it quickly to get an idea of what is going on. Only people who are very interested will spend the time reading the footnotes because they want to understand it more fully.

The idea of something being only a footnote indicates that although the information is readily available, very few people will ever see it.