Unusual and Fun Punctuation Marks

Hello Everyone, Winnie Griggs here.

The other day I was watching a TV show (I’ve forgotten just which one now) and in a throwaway line, someone mentioned the Hedera punctuation mark. Well, I’d never heard of it before so naturally I had to look it up. (First I had to figure out how to spell it, which is a whole ‘nother story).  

Anyway, what I discovered was a whole world of unusual punctuation marks I’d never heard of before.  So in case any of the rest of you are similarly  curious, I thought I’d share what I found with you.

Acclamation Point

The acclamation point is a fun bit of punctuation that just looks happy and excited. Its purpose is to be used to indicate an exuberant welcome or an enthusiastic sense of goodwill.

Asterism

Also used in astronomy to indicate a group of stars, in punctuation it’s a nearly obsolete symbol used to indicate scene or other breaks in the text of a work. Nowadays three asterisks in a single line or another more simplified symbol performs this function.

Authority Point

As the name suggests, this punctuation mark indicates that the writer is speaking from a position of expertise or authority on the subject and that the statement or advice should be taken seriously.

Certitude Point

Similar to the Authority Point in both looks and meaning, the Certitude Point indicates the writer is absolutely certain of the facts presented but does not speak as an expert in the field.

Doubt Point

On the other end of the spectrum from the Authority Point and Certitude Point, the interesting-looking Doubt Point indicates the writer is skeptical of the statement.

Hedera

This is the one that started me on this quest. I had seen this one before, usually when perusing webdings, but I didn’t know what it was called or what it signified. The hedera is also called the fleuron and apparently dates back to old Greek and Latin texts. It was used to indicate the break between paragraphs back in the day before the custom of starting paragraphs on a new line came into common usage. These days it is used strictly as a decorative element.

Interpunct

This is a nearly obsolete bit of punctuation. In ancient times this vertically-centered dot was used to indicate a pause in the interior of sentences and sometimes to separate compound words.  It survives today in dictionaries to show the break between syllables in a word. It’s also used in mathematics to indicate the multiplication function.

Interrobang

This is another fun punctuation mark, one I could actually see myself using. The interrobang is for when you ask a question excitedly, or to express unbelief and surprise at the same time.

Irony Point

This punctuation mark actually precedes a bit of text to indicate that in the following passage there may be a crafty second layer of meaning. Surprisingly, this one has been around since 1841.

Love Point.

As the shape suggests, this one is used to signify affection or amorous subtext. This one is relatively new, appearing in 1966. 

Percontation Point

This backwards-question-mark-looking bit of punctuation is intended to be used to indicate the question is rhetorical. Who knew ʕ

Pilcrow

This one I’ve definitely seen before, and I’m sure most of you have too. And I also knew its function. But I never knew it had a name other than “paragraph mark”. Of course this is the symbol used to indicate the end of a paragraph.

Question Comma and Exclamation Comma

These fun bits of punctuation can be used when you want to express curiosity or excitement mid-sentence. They were invented in Canada in the early 1990s.

So there you have it, a bakers dozen of fun and unusual punctuation marks.

How many of these did you already know?  Which struck you as most interesting? Are there any others you’d like to throw in the mix?

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