Sunday, August 3, 2014
Word of the Day
interrobang
\ in-TER-uh-bang \, noun;
1.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. Also, interabang .
Quotes:
Popular as it was with writers and admen, the interrobang faced a struggle for mainstream acceptance.
-- Keith Houston, "Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks ," 2013
The Interrobang is not a font -- just a single character. Yet it is so powerful a symbol, and such a flawed and original concept, that it deserves a place alongside the most adventurous typographic innovations of the last century.
-- Simon Garfield, "Just My Type ," 2011
Origin:
Interrobang is an Americanism from the mid-1960s. It is a blend of interrogation point , another term for a question mark, and bang , printers' slang for an exclamation point.
Dictionary.com
