from Cecil Adams, Straightdope Classics.
As you can see, Cecil uses it sometimes too: (!)
The first time I ever saw it used was by a British author. But after I saw Cecil’s use of it, I began using it myself, mostly for irony and to show mock surprise and shock. But I have to confess, I never found out exactly what it means. What exactly is meant by “(!)”?
I think it’s used most commonly in a quoted passage, to indicate that the author believes that particular piece of text may suprise or shock the reader. That’s my take.
I have always taken it to mean either something like mock surprise or something like> :eek: ; if the writer inserts a naked exclamation mark, the only way to read it really is as genuine (often surprised) emphasis, bracketing it makes it more of a comment in its own right.
It is a juxtaposition of the common use of a parenthetical (to add information that is not immediately necessary) and an exclamation point, expressing surprise or amazement. It’s equivilent to saying,
It’s just a way of puttin in an exclamation mark, without having to end the sentence or interrupt the flow.
AND interrupt the flow, that is.
How is it pronounced?
I vote for “BANG!”
It may come from chess notation. When there’s a report of a chess game, after unusual moves the editor sometimes inserts (?) to indicate a questionable move, and (!) to indicate an unusual, unexpected move.
… and here I thought it was a symbol for naughty bits…
FWIW, your various comic strips will occasionally have a word bubble with “!” in it to indicate surprise on the part of whoever is exclaiming the exclamation point.
Yeah. It’s a female bending over.
Could be, but I’d wager that you’re tranposing cause and effect.
–Cliffy
MOre fun naughty bits:
Bum: ( | )
BIG bum: ( | )
Boobies: (.)(.)
BIG boobies: ( . )( . )
What kind of women are you dating? It’s a woman on her back with her feet raised. Very effective when combined with the tongue smiley:
=P( ! )
I vote for the sound of one jaw dropping
I always imagined it as sounding like the high pitched “ting!” of a triangle, or the similar sound you might hear when turning on a CRT monitor. Unpronounceable by a human, of course, but it always seemed appropriate.
Ranchoth
(Of course, there’s always “¡xo”)
its often means “no really, thats what I was trying to write” if someone writes something factual that sounds absolutely untrue.
like if you were summerizeing a news story and you hd to write
“man eatten by flying octopus while swimming in a pool of mt dew(!)”
Remember in The Matrix where Morpheus shows Neo something really cool, like he can jump between two skyscrapers, and Neo just says “…whoa.”? That’s the (!).
I disagree…in this instance, at least. I think it’s meant to point out the irony or ludicrousness of a statement. In the case of the original passage, I’d recast it thusly:
or
And this boys and girls is why I love this place…