E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Marks in Grammar and Printing.
Printers’ marks on the first page of a sheet are called Signatures. (See LETTERS AT FOOT OF PAGE.)
1
Serifs are the strokes which finish off Roman letters, top and bottom. A, B, C, are “block” letters, or “sans serifs.”
2
.. over the second of two vowels, as aërial, is called “diæresis,” and in French, trema.
3
’ An acute accent. In Greek it indicates a rise in the voice. It was not used till Greek became familiar to the Romans.
4
‘ A grave accent. In Greek it indicates a fall of the voice. It was not used till Greek became familiar to the Romans.
5
” over a vowel, as ö, ü, is called in German zweipunct.
6
• over a vowel, as å, is called in Danish umlauf.
7
≃ A circumflex over the letter n (as Oñoro), in Spanish, is called a tilde (2 syl.). A circumflex in French indicates that a letter has been abstracted, as être for “estre.”
8
t between two hyphens in French, as parle-t-il? is called “t ephelcystic.” (See N.)
9
& The Tironian sign (q.v.). (See AND.)
10
- Hyphen, as horse-guards.
11
- joining a pronoun to its verb in French, as irai-je, donnait-on, is called le trait d’union.
12
, under the letter c in French, is called a cedilla, and indicates that the letter = s. (See PRINTERS’ MARKS.)
13
A pilcrow, to call attention to a statement.
14
¶ A blind P, marks a new paragraph indirectly connected with preceding matter.
15
() Called parentheses, and
16
[] Called brackets, separate some explanatory or collateral matter from the real sequence.
17
is a comma; ; is a semicolon?: is a colon; . is a point or full stop.
18
—or … . in the middle or at the end of a sentence is a break, and shows that something is suppressed.
