Secret Punctuation Marks You Never Knew Existed (Unless You’re a Smarty-pants)
An Interrobang - who knew?
Who knew? I, the arbiter of all things punctuation in my house and admitted serial-comma-lover, just learned that I’m not at smart as I think I am.
My days of proudly trotting out “It’s called an ampersand!” to my grade-schooler — or, better yet, “It’s not really called the ‘at’ sign, you know; it’s an ampersat” — are apparently numbered, as I’ve been humbled by a recent post by Jack Shepherd at Buzzfeed.
If you’ve never heard of the Interrobang, the Solidus, or the Pilcrow, you’ll love his piece detailing a dozen-plus under-the-radar punctuation gems. Aside from the obvious geek appeal, it’s a marvelous reminder that our language is complicated, arcane, richer than we often realize, and sometimes just plain silly.
Did you know there’s a mark called a Snark? Seriously! There is. And it may soon replace the serial comma as my favorite.
Read more: 14 Punctuation Marks You Never Knew Existed
C.C. Holland 