# What does \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ period mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 26, 2002, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873 "2002-11-26T12:52:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Phlint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@Phlint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlint)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/21 "2002-11-26T19:24:50Z")
If a period (".") is called a “full stop” in England, what is a comma (",") called over there? A yield? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/22 "2002-11-26T19:29:50Z")
I love you period. Do you love me question mark? Please please exclamation point! (I wanna hold you in parentheses). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/23 "2002-11-26T20:18:24Z")
I’ll give my own slightly different opinion. Saying “Period” after a sentence emphasizes that the immediately previous sentence has ended and is complete, with no additional qualifying clauses, and so with no qualification at all. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/24 "2002-11-26T20:33:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rowrrbazzle \* > \*\*I’ll give my own slightly different opinion. > > Saying “Period” after a sentence emphasizes that the immediately previous sentence has ended and is complete, with no additional qualifying clauses, and so with no qualification at all. \*\* True enough but it is also used to dismiss further discussion, presenting an opinion as if it were inarguable fact. Ex: “Dodge Ram is the best truck on the road today. Period.” ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/25 "2002-11-26T21:58:33Z")
If used in GD it means “I am 100% right and you are all morons if you don’t see it”. End of story. Period. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/26 "2002-11-26T22:06:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Phlint \* > \*\*If a period (".") is called a “full stop” in England, what is a comma (",") called over there? A yield? \*\* Bravo! Wish we had a “round of applause” smiley. Though further to confuse you, our equivalent of a “yield” sign says “Give way”. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/27 "2002-11-27T01:20:37Z")
I sometimes like to add the “paragraph” after “period.” I’m not going. Period. Paragraph. Not only am I not going, but we are moving on to the next subject. And then there’s: Period, Paragraph, close the book, and put it back on the shelf. Just for a little overkill. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/28 "2002-11-27T02:16:26Z")
I guess I’m becoming a grumpy Doper because I resent being asked a question that can easily be answered by consulting a dictionary. > [@](#): > > _interj._ Used to emphasize finality, as when expressing a decision or an opinion: _You’re not going to the movies tonight, period!_ Also, note that the use of “period” to refer to the dot at the end of a sentence is not an Americanism: > [@](#): > > Many may have wondered why the word period has the sense “punctuation mark (.)” as well as several senses having to do with time. The answer to this question lies in one of the senses of the Greek word periodos from which our word is descended. Periodos, made up of peri-, “around,” and hodos, “way,” in addition to meaning such things as “going around, way around, going around in a circle, circuit,” and with regard to time, “cycle or period of time,” referred in rhetoric to “a group of words organically related in grammar and sense.” The Greek word was adopted into Latin as perihodos, which in the Medieval Latin period acquired a new sense related to its use in rhetoric, “a punctuation mark used at the end of a rhetorical period.” This sense is not recorded in English until 1609, but the word had already entered English as a borrowing from Old French in the sense “a cycle of recurrence of a disease,” first being recorded in a work written around 1425. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/29 "2002-11-27T03:36:56Z")
You Brits would have hated life at my high school. We had up to seven periods a day. Only one nurse on duty too. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/30 "2002-11-27T03:40:26Z")
> [@](#): > > “a cycle of recurrence of a disease,” Not gonna touch it. No way. Period. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/31 "2002-11-27T05:13:46Z")
> [@](#): > > We had up to seven periods a day Damn! Wouldn’t you be too weak even to stand? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873/32 "2002-11-27T05:34:30Z")
And **double** periods at my school. IT is a wonder that I am still alive. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-________-period-mean/138873.md?page=1)