| Punctuation Etymologies | |
| Ampersand | From modern English, a corruption of "and per se". The etymology of "Emperor's Hand" is amusing, but apocryphal. The symbol itself, "&", is thought to come from combining the letters of the Latin word for "and" ("et"). Aue's Raymond Wise has placed commentary discrediting this origin here. |
| Apostrophe | From the Greek for "of turning away", "elision". |
| Colon | From the Greek word for "limb", "member". |
| Comma | From the Greek for "piece cut off", derived from the Greek verb for "to strike". |
| Dollar Sign | From the German word for "valley", as a shortened reference to a silver mine and mint in "Joachim's Valley". The symbol itself, "$", is thought to be derived from "8" as in "pieces of eight". |
| Exclamation mark | From the Latin word for "to call out". The symbol itself, "!", is thought to come from the first and last letters of the Latin word for "joy" ("io") in the same manner as the question mark "?" was formed. |
| Ellipsis | From the Greek for "to come short", originally used in geometry. |
| Parenthesis | From the Greek for "to put in beside", "to place". |
| Period | From the Greek for "going round", "circuit", "revolution". Originally used to designate the cycle between the Olympic games. |
| Question mark | Originally from the Latin for "to ask". The symbol itself, "?", is thought to be derived from the first and last letters of "quaestio". |
| Quotation mark | Originally from the Latin for "to mark the number of" (related to "quota"). |
| Further research | Those interested in further research are invited to search the net with such terms as "Geofroy Tory", "Marcus Tiro", "William Mason", "Donald Anderson", "Richard Firmage", and "William Walsh". |
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