Punctuation Marks the Spot! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Until 1970, most keyboards did not have an exclamation point.

The exclamation point didn't become a standard feature on keyboards until the 1970s. For years, an exclamation point was made by typing a period (full stop), backspace, and then typing an apostrophe. For those of us who remember, it made a dandy exclamation point!

Answer: Eroteme

An eroteme is a punctuation mark that indicates a question or interrogation. While not all languages use a symbol to indicate a question, most written European languages do. Some, most notably Spanish, will even use one upside down at the beginning of the sentence and another one at the end of the sentence that is right side up.

Answer: It can indicate that the reader can find more in a footnote

An asterisk can have between five and eight arms, which can vary in shape. The name comes from its resemblance to a star. Its most common use is to refer the reader to a footnote where they will find relevant information that does not fit into the main text - usually either a comment of an expansion.

When written in front of digits representing a year, it means that this is the year of birth of the person under discussion. Asterisks can also be used to replace letters in a word that is deemed unacceptable to write in full, so that the original is implied rather than stated in full.

This is often done to indicate obscenity or profanity, but can also be a way of showing respect for a holy word that believers do not write in full.

Answer: The last letter of the Roman alphabet

The word "ampersand" was not popularly used until the 19th century, and has its origins in Latin. It is a corruption of the phrase "and 'per se' and". The symbol was commonly written at the end of the alphabet, and the Latin phrase 'per se' was used when saying a letter of the alphabet that could also be used as a word, to indicate that it is the symbol that is being referred to.

When the English alphabet was recited out loud, it therefore ended with "...xyz and 'per se' and". This eventually condensed into ampersand, and that term remained when the symbol stopped being written at the end of the alphabet.

Answer: Grawlix

The term grawlix first appeared in 1964 in a book titled "Let's Get Down to Grawlixes". This unusual book was written American cartoonist Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey. There is no set order that a grawlix must be written in, and it was used as a polite way of implying excitement or profane words.

Answer: Tilde

A tilde is an accent mark, commonly seen in Spanish and Portuguese. When placed over a vowel, or often the letter "n", this punctuation mark indicates nasalization of that letter.

Answer: False

This symbol is the pound sterling currency mark. The word sterling MUST be in there as the term "pound mark" means different things in different English speaking countries. Originally, it was a reference to a pound of silver.

Answer: Legal

It is called a section sign, and is usually used as a reference to a particular section of a document. It is usually found in legal documents but is occasionally used in other occupations.

Answer: A new paragraph starts here.

This archaic punctuation mark indicates that this is the spot to start a new paragraph. Paragraphs were not commonly used for many centuries as they wasted space. This punctuation mark is used in the field of law, more than any other. It is also often used by copy editors in the course of their work on any kind of writing.

Answer: True

For many years the "at sign" was used in the business/accounting world to mean "at a rate of". For example, "three pears @ one dollar apiece". Today the "at sign" is commonly used in computer addresses and simply means "at".