whats the origin for 'x" as wrong and ‘/" as correct? [think of your exam answer sheets]
I hope you folks can understand what I mean by the 'X’for wrong and the '/’[for eg. the Nike ‘Swoosh’]
If you do… do you know the origin of these symbols…
Thanks
Anand
No clue as to origins, but their usage goes back at least to the 50’s. Oddly enough both marks can be referred to as “check marks” although the one you can’t make properly on the keyboard (the Nike swoosh) is more commonly meant with “check mark.”
I suspect (but can’t prove) their origin may go as far back as the “tally marks” where every fifth stroke cuts across the first four to show “five.” I think that’s at least as far back as the Roman numerals.
Maybe they originated in Czechoslovakia? 
‘This is a guess. It is only a guess. Had this been an actual researched answer, it would have been followed by a citation. Please tune to your local station for details.’
Crossing something out is a way to make it go away. If an answer is wrong, then crossing it out would nullify it. Putting an X next to it accomplishes the same thing. A check mark means that the answer has been checked and found true.
Not meant as a hijack, really, but have you thought that the “check mark” (swoosh thingy) bears at least passing resemblance to V which is Roman numeral 5 and that X is the symbol for 10? Maybe it’s a reverse counting system which has 1 as the best and 10 as the worst. So in some cultures a 10 is a real dog.
Also, in bowling (my favorite contact sport) an X is more valuable than a / but I suspect that’s not involved in your answer.
I suspect that the tick mark may be a corruption of the letter “r” for the Latin “rectus”. However, I can’t find a cite for this. The similar-looking square root sign is derived from the letter “r” in the Latin word “radix”. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_root )
Hmm…In my grammar school and high school, check marks were signs of incorrect and a cursive capital “C” was correct. Was my experience fairly anamolous?
In my school experiences, what check marks, x’s, and the like meant was up to the individual teacher, so I’d say no.
That would be ✗ and 
, right? I’d like to mention that the ‘negative’ connotation of ✗ does not seem to be universal across Western cultures - I as a German first had difficulty understanding the implication of lists where some items were marked with ✗ and others with - something to learn along with decimal points except decimal commas etc.