# Origin of punctuation marks **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2006, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725 "2006-04-29T10:07:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/1 "2006-04-29T10:07:50Z")
Who invented punctuation marks? Did they, or some of them, exist before Gutenberg ? (Wikipedia doesn’t say anything about their origin. I also searched this forum and Google, no luck) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/2 "2006-04-29T10:36:05Z")
Wikipedia does seem to give a brief history if you look up the individual marks. It doesn’t have anything for the period for instance, but the question mark and semicolon are covered. > [@Wikipedia - Question Mark](#): > > The symbol is generally thought to originate from the Latin quaestio, meaning “question”, which was abbreviated to Qo. The uppercase Q was written above the lowercase o, and this mark was transformed into the modern symbol. Another hypothesis about the origin of the question mark proposes that the mark originated in the 9th century, when it appeared as a point followed by the curvy bit written slanted (similar to the tilde, although the tilde was tilted more upward to the right). The point has always indicated the end of a sentence. The curved line represented the intonation pattern of a spoken question, and may be associated with a kind of early musical notation, like neumes. Some theorize that the mark may come from a curved tale of a cat (known for being a curious animal), with the dot being inspired by the anus. Another possibility is that the question mark resembles a raised eyebrow. For instance. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/3 "2006-04-29T10:44:23Z")
> [@Sage Rat](#): > > Wikipedia does seem to give a brief history if you look up the individual marks. It doesn’t have anything for the period for instance, but the question mark and semicolon are covered. Is the term “period” only relevant to the US though? Isn’t “.” better known as a full stop? ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/4 "2006-05-01T10:42:33Z")
I understand that many of the more famous punctuation marks were originally words. The exclamation mark, for instance, was an I over O, literally “Yo!” (or it’s archaic equivalent anyway). The Ampersand was originally (and in some fonts still resembles) an “Et”, which literally means “and”. I forget how the percent symbol(s) worked, but it was something straightforward like that. That means the first suggestion above for the question mark is almost certainly correct. And, really, cat tail with an anus?!? I removed that nonsense from Wikipedia, but what the heck is wrong with people over there? ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/5 "2006-05-01T12:15:02Z")
Not really punctuation, but the ‘=’ sign was invented by mathematician [Robert Recorde](http://www.swan.ac.uk/compsci/dept/recorde/) in 1557 because he was tired of writing ‘is equal to’ all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/6 "2006-05-01T14:56:40Z")
Punctuation marks are simply a way to make reading easier. As printing became widespread, so did formats and punctuation. Of course it was not a smooth process. Nobody sat down on a Thursday and invented the system we have now. So yes, moveable type was an important milestone in punctuation, but not exactly the beginning as as punctuation was used in written texts well before then. But back then, there were no real rules. Does that help in the least? Perhaps you would enjoy the very readable book on punctuation _Eats, Shoots, and Leaves._ Well worth your time. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/7 "2006-05-01T16:44:25Z")
One should also note that–besides the marks used in traditional punctuation–placing spaces between words is itself a form of punctuation. Most ancient inscriptions written in lettered scripts ran all the words together; the latin verb _legere_ = “to read” also means “to pick out or choose” (root of English words like collect, elect, select) because you literally had to pick out the words from a stream of letters. Later Roman inscriptions (e.g. [the Arch of Constantine](http://www.planetware.com/picture/rome/arch-of-constantine-i-ir025.htm)) would sometimes use a raised dot between words. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/8 "2006-05-01T17:39:31Z")
> [@Dan Norder](#): > > (or it’s archaic equivalent anyway) Speaking of punctuation marks . . . ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/9 "2006-05-02T03:46:17Z")
I think the widespread use, at least, of a lot of punctuation (spaces, full-stops, question marks) all dates to the Carolingian writing reform ca 800 or so. No specifics in my head, though. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/10 "2006-05-02T11:55:49Z")
I have an audio book from the woman who wrote _Eats Shoots and Leaves_, and she contends that many punctuation marks were invented to help actors in plays learn their lines. This is supposedly the origin of periods and commas. The comma orginally came in high, middle, and low versions. I think the placement of the comma was supposed to denote inflection. The high comma survives as the apostrophe (’), although it isn’t used like a comma anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/11 "2006-05-03T08:31:52Z")
It’s surprising that so little has been said about those signs we use everyday. _Eats shoots and leaves_ seems to be THE book to get. The title however doesn’t say much about punctuation! Thanks everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-punctuation-marks/354725/12 "2006-05-03T15:59:11Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > _Eats shoots and leaves_ seems to be THE book to get. The title however doesn’t say much about punctuation! The title is actually _Eats, Shoots & Leaves_\*, of course referring to an old punctuation based joke. Without the comma in the title, the phrase means something quite different than with. Even more direct when the subtitle is included as well: _Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation_.