Can I use an asterisk or a footnote to add information about a word in Chicago style

Question

I am writing a paper, and I was wondering if I could use an asterisk and dagger symbol to add a note in the footnotes section explaining a word in Chicago style.?

Example:

Lola* and other plenipotentiaries† signed the document.

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*Filipino word meaning "grandma."

†Diplomatic representative of a country.

Answer 1

You can use symbols for footnotes if you don't have a lot of footnotes.

Section 14.25 of the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style says:

[..] Where only a handful of footnotes appear in an entire book or, perhaps, just one in an article, symbols may be used instead of numbers (see also 14.24). Usually an as­terisk is enough, but if more than one note is needed on the same page, the sequence is * † ‡ [..]

Answer 2

The references^{1, 2, 3, 4} to the Chicago style that I have seen use numbers in superscript when adding a (foot)note, so probably not.