[PLUG-TALK] Name of the division symbol
Dick Steffens
dick at dicksteffens.com
Wed Apr 22 19:00:35 UTC 2015
On 04/22/2015 11:51 AM, Dale Snell wrote:
> Obelus, descended from ὀβελός, the same Greek root as "obelisk".
>
> I had to look it up on Wikipedia, since groff_char(7) just called
> it "division". Then again, that's what the Unicode Consortium
> calls it.
>
> The slash character, "/", when used for division is called a
> "solidus". (The backslash, "\", is unsurprisingly a "reverse
> solidus".) When used in text, it's likely to be called a
> "virgule". Typographically, the solidus is more horizontal (~45°)
> than the virgule (~15° to my eye), and probably thinner.
>
> Just to confuse matters, the Unicode Consortium named the virgule
> "solidus". This was an error, and they know it. But since a code
> point, once named, cannot be renamed, they created another one
> called "fraction slash", which is to be used as the real solidus.
> Ain't standards fun?
>
> And now you know. :-)
Interesting stuff to keep on hand during the next trivia event.
--
Regards,
Dick Steffens
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