Literary Signs and Symbols 3 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ampersand

The etymology here is interesting. As I mentioned in my first quiz of this sort (plug plug!) the ampersand (&) was originally called the Tironian sign. However, as a result of the constant repetition of 'and per se and (and by itself and)' by school children at the end of the alphabet in their reading books, the phrase was eventually condensed into a single word and became 'ampersand'!

Answer: Ellipsis

The points of ellipsis are one of my favorite punctuation markers, signifying an omitted word and more importantly, an unfinished thought...

Answer: ,

The Greek word 'komma' means 'segment' or 'clause in a sentence'. There is a butterfly of the genus Polygonia that is called a 'comma' because it has little commas on its hind wings!

Answer: /

Most people these days just call it a slash, which should not be confused with the backslash (). The word 'virgule' is from the Latin, and means 'twig' (a diminutive form of the word 'virga', which means 'stick). The 'solidus' was the name of a Roman coin, and came to be used for the small notch or line that symbolized the coin, along with the British Shilling, which obviously came much later.

Answer: V

Here's an example of a circumflex marker by itself (^) and one used with an actual word (rûn). It looks uncannily like a caret marker (^), doesn't it?

Answer: Tilde

The tilde denotes a 'nyuh' sound when found over the letter n in Spanish. It may also be used to denote a nasal vowel sound, as in irmã.

Answer: False

It is actually called a 'verticule', the name simply derived from the word 'vertical'...meaning upright. A verticule is used most often to separate symbols in mathematical, computer or musical texts, but perhaps we can find a new use for it in other areas of writing? Please send me your clever ideas...

Answer: #

The pound sign, as it's commonly known in the US, has this more technical name. The etymology of this word is not known for certain, but it's fairly obvious that the octo- means 'eight'. Some theorize that the term, invented by employees at Bell Labs (phone company, go figure!) came up with this term...and that the -thorp is in reference to the famous American Indian athlete Jim Thorpe.

Others point to an old English term 'thorp', which means 'village' or 'field'. It could be that the world will never know the true answer...and do we really want to? A mystery is much more fun.

Answer: Apostrophe

The punctuation mark called an apostrophe (') has many uses, to contain a quote, to signify possession e.g., Francis's Bacon, and to mark a contraction e.g., ain't...which IS a word! The literary term is used to describe a situation in which a character turns from the audience to address a personified but abstract object, or an absent person...here is an example from the Bible: 'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' (Notice I also used apostrophes to contain the apostrophe? What fun!)

Answer: Libra

The Latin word 'libra' means pound, and the symbol (£) is just a fancy 'L' written in old cursive, with a crossed bar suggesting that it is being used as a measurement. Well...I hope that you enjoyed this quiz and learned a thing or two...and thanks for playing!