Lacuna

Plural lacunae. From Latin lacuna, gap, pool, cavern. With reference to manuscripts, it means to be defective for a portion of the text (usually short). Notice that a lacuna always refers to a portion of a manuscript which has been lost (due to the disappearance of leaves or the effects of water or trimming or whatever); it should not be used to refer to a section of the text which never was found in a manuscript. The adjective lacunose may refer to a manuscript with many lacunae.