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Thursday word: obelus
Aug. 24th, 2017 08:05 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
prettygoodword.livejournal.comobelus (OB-uh-luhs) - n., the typographical symbol ÷ (division sign); the typographical symbol † (dagger).
The former more correctly, which originally was used to mark suspect passages in manuscripts, but now almost entirely for division (though in some languages it's sometimes used for a number range). The latter is now mostly used for an alternate footnote marker, but there's a host of other specialized usages. Both derive from the same medieval scribal symbol, and comes from the diminutive of the Greek for a spit (or other sharpened stick).
---L.
The former more correctly, which originally was used to mark suspect passages in manuscripts, but now almost entirely for division (though in some languages it's sometimes used for a number range). The latter is now mostly used for an alternate footnote marker, but there's a host of other specialized usages. Both derive from the same medieval scribal symbol, and comes from the diminutive of the Greek for a spit (or other sharpened stick).
---L.
