Definition Change Log¶
Provenance log — instantiates Semantic Drift Monitoring
An append-only ledger recording what each definition change was, who approved it, and when it took effect.
A Definition Change Log is the append-only record of a term's definitional history: one dated entry per change, each preserving the definition as it stood before, naming the authority who approved the change, and marking when it took effect. Its defining property is that it is never overwritten — entries accumulate, so at any point you can reconstruct the full chain of what the term meant, in what order, on whose authority. It answers questions of provenance and accountability, not "what does the term mean now" (that is the glossary) and not "how do old and new meanings coexist in practice" (that is versioning). It is the ledger that makes semantic change auditable rather than a series of silent edits.
Example¶
A corporate finance team maintains a change log for the definitions in its internal financial-reporting handbook. The term "recurring revenue" has been revised twice. The log holds two immutable entries. The first, dated three years ago, records the original definition ("revenue from contracts auto-renewing within twelve months"), notes it was approved by the then-controller, and preserves it verbatim. The second, dated last quarter, records the revision that added usage-based subscriptions to the definition, names the VP of Finance as the approving authority, marks the effective date as the start of the current fiscal year, and — crucially — leaves the first entry untouched beneath it. When an analyst later asks why a two-year-old board deck reported a lower recurring-revenue figure than today's definition would produce, the log answers instantly: it shows the definition in force at that time, who set it, and exactly when the change happened. The log does not itself publish the current definition or manage compatibility — it simply guarantees the history is legible.
How it works¶
- One entry per change, append-only. Each definitional change is written as a new dated record; nothing prior is edited or deleted, which is what makes the history trustworthy.[n1]
- Preserve the superseded state. Every entry captures the definition as it stood before the change, so each past meaning survives verbatim rather than as a memory.
- Attribute the authority. Each entry names who approved the change, fixing accountability to a person or role rather than to an anonymous edit.
- Stamp the effective date. Each entry records when the new meaning took force, so any document can be read against the definition that was current when it was written.
Tuning parameters¶
- Entry granularity — whether every wording tweak is logged or only substantive meaning changes; fine granularity gives a complete trail but buries the significant changes among trivia.
- Attribution depth — how much of the deciding rationale and approver identity each entry carries; richer attribution aids later accountability but raises the effort and the sensitivity of the record.
- Immutability enforcement — how strictly append-only is guarded (soft convention versus locked records); stricter enforcement makes the trail tamper-evident but reduces the ease of correcting an erroneous entry.
- Retention horizon — how far back entries are kept; longer retention preserves deep history but grows the ledger and its upkeep.
When it helps, and when it misleads¶
Its strength is legibility of history: because meaning changed on the record — with an owner and a date — old documents stay interpretable in their own era and no one can quietly back-date a definition. It is the direct guard against retroactive misreading. Its failure mode is that a log records but does not govern: a meticulous change log can sit beside a definition that has already drifted again with no new entry, giving false comfort that meaning is under control when only its past is documented. The classic misuse is treating the log as evidence of good governance while the update and communication steps are neglected. The guarding discipline is to keep the log downstream of an actual change process — it is a witness to governance, not a substitute for it — and to date entries at approval, never after the fact.
How it implements the components¶
drift_governance_owner— each entry names the authority who approved the change, fixing accountability for every semantic revision to a person or role.baseline_meaning_snapshot— each entry preserves the definition as it stood before the change, so the ledger accumulates the full ordered series of the term's past meanings.
It does not carry the legacy_compatibility_note that tells readers how old and new meanings interoperate — that coexistence contract is Semantic Versioning Policy, the nearest twin: the log is a chronological record of what changed and by whom, while versioning is a scheme of dated version identities and compatibility rules. It also does not perform the definition_update_rule or change_communication_plan that decide and publish a revision — that is Glossary Update Workflow.
Related¶
- Instantiates: Semantic Drift Monitoring — it is the accountability record that preserves visible meaning continuity across changes.
- Consumes: Glossary Update Workflow — the workflow's published revisions are what the log records, entry by entry.
- Sibling mechanisms: Terminology Audit · Corpus / Usage Monitoring · Glossary Update Workflow · Semantic Versioning Policy · Policy Language Review · Stakeholder Interpretation Check · Usage Exception Registry
Editorial Notes¶
Form Classification¶
Form family: Record, Log & Register
Rationale: Definition Change Log operates as a durable record, ledger, register, or trace whose value depends on preserving actual state or history because it an append-only ledger recording what each definition change was, who approved it, and when it took effect.
Independent corroboration: The frozen evidence defines Definition Change Log as 'An append-only ledger recording what each definition change was, who approved it, and when it took effect', so its operative form is Record, Log & Register.
Review outcome: Independent reviewer agreement; high confidence.
Origin Attribution¶
Primary origin: Library & Information Science
Origin pattern: Cross-disciplinary synthesis
Present-day reach: Multi-domain
Rationale: Information governance and provenance practice cohered append-only records that preserve successive authoritative definitions and their effective dates.
Related originating lineages:
- Computer Science & Software Engineering — Software and information systems supplied a materially formative implementation lineage.
- Law & Governance — Legislative and regulatory drafting supplied effective-date and approving-authority histories for changing definitions.
Review resolution: Information governance and provenance practice cohered append-only records that preserve successive authoritative definitions and their effective dates. The retained alternate lineages materially shaped the mechanism's form.
Attribution caveat: The exact semantic-change ledger synthesizes provenance control with legal versioning practice.
Encyclopedia synthesis: The exact catalogued form synthesizes established practice rather than reproducing a single standard historical label.
Review outcome: Reconciled after independent review; medium confidence.
Notes¶
[n1] Provenance — the documented history of an item's origin and successive changes. An append-only provenance record, in which entries are added but never altered, is the standard defense against silent or retroactive revision, because the trail itself becomes tamper-evident. ↩