Your article mentions the octothorpe. Just while I think of it, a # is often used in surgical note taking in the UK. It means ‘a fracture’, so ‘# R femur’ or ‘# (R) femur’ translates as ‘[a] fracture of the [patient’s] right femur’. I don’t know how this usage came about.
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Hi Korhomme – I remember learning about that same usage when I broke my arm a few years ago. I have no idea where it came from either! Perhaps a medically-inclined reader can shed some light on it?
Comment posted by Anonymous on
When I read French, 40-odd years ago, quotation marks appeared like this <>. Do they still?
Comment posted by John Cowan on
More precisely, like this: « ». And yes, French typography still uses them. They also come in single versions: ‹ ›.
Comment posted by wangi on
And of course the diple had a resurgence for a while: quoting replies in plain text emails…
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Very true! Thanks for the comment.
Comment posted by Martijn van der Ven on
What bothered me the most here is an article written about punctuation marks that uses ‘–’ (double dash) to punctuate interpolations rather than an actual ‘—’ (em-dash).
Comment posted by Martijn van der Ven on
Looks like WordPress changed my double dash for a single hyphen? Should have been ‘- -’ without the space.
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Hi Martin — yup, WordPress is a little more switched-on when it comes to punctuation than the Huffington Post’s blogging platform. I tried pasting in em-dashes, smart quotes and the like, but they were all transformed into their typewritten equivalents.
Comment posted by Korhomme on
Your article mentions the octothorpe. Just while I think of it, a # is often used in surgical note taking in the UK. It means ‘a fracture’, so ‘# R femur’ or ‘# (R) femur’ translates as ‘[a] fracture of the [patient’s] right femur’. I don’t know how this usage came about.
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Hi Korhomme – I remember learning about that same usage when I broke my arm a few years ago. I have no idea where it came from either! Perhaps a medically-inclined reader can shed some light on it?
Comment posted by Anonymous on
When I read French, 40-odd years ago, quotation marks appeared like this <>. Do they still?
Comment posted by John Cowan on
More precisely, like this: « ». And yes, French typography still uses them. They also come in single versions: ‹ ›.
Comment posted by wangi on
And of course the diple had a resurgence for a while: quoting replies in plain text emails…
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Very true! Thanks for the comment.
Comment posted by Martijn van der Ven on
What bothered me the most here is an article written about punctuation marks that uses ‘–’ (double dash) to punctuate interpolations rather than an actual ‘—’ (em-dash).
Comment posted by Martijn van der Ven on
Looks like WordPress changed my double dash for a single hyphen? Should have been ‘- -’ without the space.
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Hi Martin — yup, WordPress is a little more switched-on when it comes to punctuation than the Huffington Post’s blogging platform. I tried pasting in em-dashes, smart quotes and the like, but they were all transformed into their typewritten equivalents.
Thanks for the comment!