What does "ibid." mean?

I thought that "ibid." was meant to be used when writing footnotes? I was reading a play this morning and one of the stage directions was "[ibid.]" I don't have the text with me right now and I cba to go find it. What does this stage direction mean? (The play was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, in case anybody's interested)

Reply 1

Renal

It means that the reference has already been made.

For example,

1. Clark A. History of Footnotes. Elsevier. London. 1965. p 45
2. Ibid. p54

In this case, reference 2 refers to a different page in the same publication.

Reply 2

CrazyBeautiful

Don't know, but at a guess since ibid. is used in footnotes if the citation has already been used, in this instance it might just mean it's the same as the previous stage direction

dunno......

Reply 3

Delaney

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ibid.

Reply 4

Dogatonic

Original post by Renal

It means that the reference has already been made.

For example,

1. Clark A. History of Footnotes. Elsevier. London. 1965. p 45
2. ibid. p54

What if ibid is put in a play as a stage direction? I'm not exactly sure what it looked like but it was something like this:

Martha [some stage direction] : lorem ipsum
George [another stage direction]: lorem ipsum
Martha [ibid.]: lorem ipsum

The confusing thing is that I clearly remember Martha's first stage direction as being an action; if ibid. means to repeat as above, then Martha would be repeating the same action again and it would look quite strange!

Reply 5

Renal

Original post by Dogatonic

I'm not sure, I've never encountered this myself.

I would suggest that you're right and that it does mean to repeat the previous action. However, I don't know whether that would refer to the character's previous action or the previously mentioned one.

Martha [Sips Drink] : lorem ipsum
George [Eats Sandwich]: lorem ipsum
Martha [ibid.]: lorem ipsum

Would Martha take a sip or a bite? (either of which could be repeated without looking too strange)

Reply 6

WhiskyandSoda

I just read the same thing in the same play and decided to do an internet search which bought me here!

Having read this page I think it is an instruction to repeat the previous affection (amused in spite of herself). Talking of which doesn't Albee offer a lot of direction? It's almost continuous. I wonder how actor's feel about this.