# "backslash" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749 "2003-06-05T02:11:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nineiron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e56c9b/32.png) [@nineiron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nineiron)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/1 "2003-06-05T02:11:27Z")
OK, what I’ve always considered a “slash” (well, a virgule, but still) goes like this: / So, is the new name for it (in computer-speak) a “backslash” or a “forward slash”? To me, either (or neither) makes sense, and I’ve heard people say it both ways. On a radio ad today, it was said that “blah-blah-blah dot blah-blah-blah backslash” was the address. I tried it, and it was the / mark. When making this mark by hand, one does go “back,” assuming one (like everyone I’ve ever seen) starts with the pen in the upper right position. It then goes “back and to the left.” [No second shooter jokes!] But if you read naturally from left to right, the mark goes forward, not back, so calling it a “forward slash” works too. To me, since the / is the “default” slash, it should be the one that gets to be called “forward,” no? Then this thing ( \ ) gets to be the opposite, or backslash. So which is correct? And is there a more formal name for the \ , like “virgule” for the / ? (Our stupid joke in high school, after being told that / is a virgule, not a “slash,” was to call the guitarist for Guns and Roses “Virgule” for the rest of the year. Stupid, I know.) ---
**Author:** ![tastycorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@tastycorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tastycorn)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/2 "2003-06-05T02:16:25Z")
I’ve always thought of slashes like skinny little people walking from left to right (or forward along the text). If the stop, and lean back, then it’s a backslash, if they trip and fall forward, well then… ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/3 "2003-06-05T02:21:20Z")
A slash (or virgule, also called a solidus) is “/” and the backslash is “”. No cool term for the backslash that I can find. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/4 "2003-06-05T02:29:26Z")
Any mention of a “backslash” in a URL is due to gross ineptitude. / = slash \ = backslash. It’s called a backslash because it’s a slash backwards. To make matters worse, some web clients will accept backslashes where slashes are supposed to be and change them for you, encouraging people to not learn the difference. (Not to mention Microsoft’s hair-brained scheme of using backslashes as directory seperators.) ---
**Author:** ![aeropl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@aeropl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aeropl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/5 "2003-06-05T04:29:16Z")
I have heard DJ’s say backslash while giving a web address also. I assume they don’t know or don’t care about the differece. ---
**Author:** ![Hauky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Hauky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hauky)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/6 "2003-06-05T06:06:34Z")
Heck, I’ve had people say to me “www dot blah dot com backslash whatever”, and when I verbally repeat it back while correcting them ("… dot com **SLASH DAMMIT** …"), they still don’t get it. I can do this for **hours** , and I don’t know if they just don’t understand that there are two slashes on a keyboard or what. ---
**Author:** ![d\_redguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@d\_redguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d_redguy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/7 "2003-06-05T08:05:19Z")
When referring to a URL address to clients on the phone, I often refer to it as a “foward-slash-the-one-below-the-question-mark”. It seems to be the only way to be 100% sure that they are typing the right thing into the address bar. \ ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/8 "2003-06-05T09:50:27Z")
the BBC always says ‘forward slash’ when refering to their various web addresses, ie wwwdotbbcdotcodotukforwardslashwhatever ---
**Author:** ![Tradnor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cab0a1/32.png) [@Tradnor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tradnor)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/9 "2003-06-05T23:31:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*(Not to mention Microsoft’s hair-brained scheme of using backslashes as directory seperators.) \*\* Is there some reason this is “hair-brained” other than the fact that certain other operating systems do it differently? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/10 "2003-06-05T23:56:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tradnor \* > \*\*Is there some reason this is “hair-brained” other than the fact that certain other operating systems do it differently? \*\* Because it’s more than “certain” operating systems, it’s damn near every one that existed and was in common use at the time that MS was buying DOS. ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/11 "2003-06-06T00:05:50Z")
Okay, so now that it’s been repeated three times, I can correct it: It’s **HARE** -brained, folks. Thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/12 "2003-06-06T00:16:30Z")
An colleague of mine used to refer to the (forward)slash character as _oblique_ - “wwwdotbbcdotcodotukobliquewhatever” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/13 "2003-06-06T00:16:40Z")
An colleague of mine used to refer to the (forward)slash character as _oblique_ - “wwwdotbbcdotcodotukobliquewhatever” ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/14 "2003-06-06T00:53:23Z")
About the MSDOS thing: IIRC the first version of DOS didn’t have directories. Also, DOS’s command syntax was lifted from CP/M, which also didn’t have directories. CP/M used the slash (/) to mark command-line switches, so DOS did likewise. When directories were introduced later, they didn’t want to overload the slash (/), so they used the backslash () as the most reasonable substitute. * * * I wonder if the people who get slash and backslash confused are the same people who get horizontal and vertical exactly ass-backward. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/15 "2003-06-06T01:11:18Z")
Sorry, **Mr. Jones** , I won’t do it again. ☹ **Manduck** , you could very well be right about the CP/M connection. I don’t really know much about DOS’s history. But it’s still inexcusable to replace such a common ideogram with something so similar as to cause confusion for generations. JMHO, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/16 "2003-06-06T01:49:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*A slash (or virgule, also called a solidus) is “/” and the backslash is “”. No cool term for the backslash that I can find. \*\* Every time I’ve been on the phone with a Microsoft engineer they’ve called it a “whack”. As in “whack whack server whack share” when discussing a UNC path. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/17 "2003-06-06T04:43:30Z")
If ! is a bang, @ is a splat, and # is a hash, then making \ a whack will fit right in. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/18 "2003-06-06T07:19:01Z")
Erm. \* is a splat, last I heard. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/19 "2003-06-06T10:41:27Z")
I thought that was a star. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backslash/179749/20 "2003-06-06T10:46:19Z")
There’s an excellent dictionary of symbols at the bottom of [this](http://www.palmcoder.net/files/Underground%20Archives/hacking/unix_new.txt) page.