mm@vaxine.UUCP (Mark Mudgett) (06/27/85)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: question about names for symbols
References: <2041@iddic.UUCP> <2086@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <5153@elsie.UUCP> <225@uwvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: mm@vaxine.UUCP (Mark Mudgett)
Distribution: net
Organization: Automatix, Inc., Billerica, MA
! bang
@ at
# sharp, pound
$ dollar
% percent
^ caret
& ampersand
* star, asterisk
( left paren, parenthesis
) right paren, parenthesis
_ underscore
- minus, dash
+ plus
= equals
~ tilde, squiggle, twiddle
` backquote
{} curly braces
[] square brackets
' single quote
" double quote
; semicolon, semi
: colon
< less than
> greater than
<> angle brackets
| pipe
/ slash
\ backslash
. dot
--
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_TT /| |~ Mark C. Mudgett
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------------------------------------------------------------------------simon@warwick.UUCP (Simon Forth) (07/04/85)
In article <590@vaxine.UUCP> mm@vaxine.UUCP (Mark Mudgett) writes: > ! bang > # sharp, pound > ^ caret I would like to add a few names that I have heard, use ! pling, shriek # hash ^ circumflex -- Simon Forth. Dept of Computing. University of Warwick. Coventry CV4 7AL. UK {various backbone sites in US}!mcvax!ukc!flame!ubu!simon
bobm@rtech.UUCP (Bob Mcqueer) (07/06/85)
I wish I could find the results of the discussion in net.misc about a year and half back. Somebody did a lengthy summary of names which was kind of interesting. I'll give what I can remember, have observed and have excerpted from articles thus far. When a name for a symbol derives from use in some particular context (such as "pipe" for | from UNIX shell), it is listed only if the character name has been known to extend to other contexts, at least among the people familiar with the original. I use [] for optional usage, | for selection of alternate terms, and () to delimit my own comments. I mark the "correct" name, so far as I know, with *, and my personal preferences with !. Call my marks whatever you like, I guess. $ dollar! [sign]*, escape (from the TECO editor, which echoed escape as $. I had this habit myself, years ago) ^ hat, up, up arrow, caret*!, pointer, exponent, circumflex (strictly speaking, I think this usage is intended for this character placed over another letter. Also note that "up-arrow" is probably a holdover from the old teletypes which printed the character this way) & and, ampersand*! * star!, asterisk!*, gear, splat, sprocket, times ~ squiggle, wiggle, whammy, snake, swung dash, twiddle!, tilde*! / slash!, virgule*, divide, over \ back, backslash!, backwhack, slosh, escape, back-oblique, reverse virgule* ' [single] quote!, squote, quotation mark*, accent [mark]*, apostrophe* " [double] quote!, quotation mark*, accent [mark]* (note: the confusion between double and single quotes which we all deal with constantly is even reflected in the dictionary I referred to (AHD). It defines "quotation mark" AND "accent mark" as referring to either symbol. For typeset text, apostrophe is the right half of a single quote pair since the left one is upside down.) ` baquote, back quote, grave! [accent]* (now, maybe for symettry's sake, this suggests that "accent" be used for ' and "quote" for ") # number [sign]*, pound! [sign]*, hash, octothorp (phone company name for the symbol) | vertical, pipe! [sign], or [sign]!, [vertical] bar* (what to call the (), <>, [], {} pairs is probably the worst mess: you can probably assume that "open" and "close" may be used in place of "left" and "right" all the way through. When somebody uses "left/open" or "close/right" with no other terms, I think they most often mean (), although I've heard this used for {}, also. Use of the directional adjective without type is probably limited to conversations where the type is obvious to both speakers (if we're discussing c statement constructs, I understand that by "open", you mean {, etc)) ( [left] paren[thesis]*!, [left] round bracket ) [right] paren[thesis]*!, [right] round bracket < [left] angle|pointy!|corner [bracket], suck (wonderful combination of vulgarity and UNIX), less [than! [sign]], [left] brocket, bra > [right] angle|pointy!|corner [bracket], blow, greater [than! [sign]], [right] brocket, ket (the "bra", "ket" pair come from notation used in quantum mechanics) { [left] [curley] brace*, [left] curley!|squirrely [bracket], begin ( old ALGOL programmers never die? Yes, I have heard this name for { used in several contexts) } [right] [curley] brace*, [right] curley!|squirrely [bracket], end [ [left] square [brace|bracket!], [left] hard bracket ] [right] square [brace|bracket!], [right] hard bracket (note: the dictionary once again confuses things, defining "brace" to mean the {, } pair, but bracket to mean either <, > or [, ].) ! shriek, yell, bang!, ballbat! (I sometimes find myself using this one, thank you JWS), exclamation point*, exclam, not _ under!, underline, underscore ("foo under bar" rolls off the tounge rather well) . period*, dot! - dash*, minus! [sign], hyphen* (for typesetters, hyphen and dash are different characters) @ at! [sign]*, kill (I believe there's some names for @, % that creep into the conversation of people who've been around TOPS-10. I can't remember them) % percent! [sign]* + plus! [sign]* = equals! [sign]* : colon!* ; semicolon!*, semi , comma!* ? question mark!* (it seems odd to me that I can't think of a colloquial name for this character - "question mark" seems clumsy enough for it to merit one) Bob McQueer ihnp4!amdahl!rtech!bobm
jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman) (07/06/85)
> ? question mark!* (it seems odd to me that I can't think of a colloquial > name for this character - "question mark" seems clumsy enough for > it to merit one) > > Bob McQueer Another name for ? is "interrogation point". This is so clumsy that it makes one grateful for the term "question mark". -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) aka Swazoo Koolak {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff
jeand@ihlpg.UUCP (AMBAR) (07/09/85)
> > ! bang > > # sharp, pound > ! pling, shriek > # hash And mine: ! bat # number sign -- AMBAR {the known universe}!ihnp4!ihlpg!jeand "You shouldn't let people drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance."
frye@cuuxa.UUCP (frye) (07/11/85)
Being the deviated person that I am, I have tended to mess up lyrics to songs and pull other perverted stunts that seem to be a little out of step with the rest of the folks. Maybe you kind people will understand (with my wierd back- ground) why I call the ! a baseball bat or night stick. I call the * and asshole, or exit wound or sometimes a green persimmon. (Ever eat one of those? It's like eating a large quantity of alum. You pucker up tightly for a long time. I call the minus sign an IOU and the = breaking even. Without drugs, where would you be now? Without Dru-u-u-ugs... I didn't have to rewrite one song. It's entitled; Take your tongue out of my mouth 'cause I'm kissin' you goodbye. Keep smilin' Tom
dmm@calmasd.UUCP (David M. MacMillan) (07/30/85)
If memory serves, a "!" is referred to as a "screamer"
in Dorothy Sayers' Murder Must Advertise. The context is
1920's (30's? - I confess my ignorance) British newspaper
slang.
As a pet peeve, I prefer to call "(" a parenthesis,
"[" a bracket, "{" a brace, and "<" an angle. I found the
tendency of fellow-students in my undergraduate days to refer
to "[" as a square bracket, "{" as a curly bracket, and "<"
as a pointy bracket as annoying as all get out (there's
another colloquial phrase for you).
Newspaper history might provide many interesting names
for symbols.
David M. MacMillan