virgule
See also: virgulé
English
WOTD – 18 January 2009
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French virgule, from Latin virgula (“twig; scratch comma”), from virga (“rod, branch”) + -ulus (“forming diminutives”). Doublet of virgula.
Noun
virgule (plural virgules)
- (typography, obsolete or historical) A medieval punctuation mark similar to the slash ⟨/⟩ or pipe ⟨|⟩ and used as a scratch comma and caesura mark.
- 1990, John McDermott, Punctuation for Now, page 20:
- Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines.
- (typography, dated) A slash, ⟨/⟩ or ⟨/⟩.
- (typography, dated) A pipe, ⟨|⟩.
Synonyms
Translations
typographic character
|
Czech
French
Pronunciation
Noun
virgule f (plural virgules)
- comma (punctuation mark)
- (mathematics) decimal point (see usage notes)
- En Europe continentale, la virgule permet de noter la partie décimale; pi vaut environ 3,1415. ― In continental Europe, the comma is used to denote the decimal part; pi is about 3.1415.
Usage notes
- In France, unlike in English-speaking countries, a comma is used to separate the whole and decimal parts of a decimal, while a space (gap) is used to mark off thousands. So "100,000.9" ("one-hundred thousand point 9") is written in French as "100 000,9".
Derived terms
Derived terms
Further reading
- “virgule”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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