[vur-gyool] 
| 1. | a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur: The defendant and/or his/her attorney must appear in court. |
| 2. | a dividing line, as in dates, fractions, a run-in passage of poetry to show verse division, etc.: 3/21/27; 3/4; Sweetest love I do not go/For weariness of thee. |
| vir·gule (vûr'gyōōl) n. Printing A diagonal mark ( / ) used especially to separate alternatives, as in and/or, to represent the word per, as in miles/hour, and to indicate the ends of verse lines printed continuously, as in Old King Cole/Was a merry old soul. [French, comma, obelus, from Late Latin virgula, accentual mark, from Latin, obelus, diminutive of virga, rod.] |
| Main Entry: | virgule |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | See forward slash |
virgule character
Rare, and ambiguous: slash or comma.
"Virgule" (or rather, Latin "virgula", meaning "little rod" or, vividly enough, "little penis") was the name of a punctuation character shaped like a small slash and used in the Latin writing system much like a modern comma -- hence the ambiguity of this term in modern English.
Compare French "virgule" and Italian "virgola", meaning "comma" (not "slash"); Italian "doppia virgola" and "virgoletta", both meaning "double quote".
(1997-04-08)
gyul