(Asterisks...)
Sure, I know what an asterisk is. But when I used the word in plural form last post, it looked funny. Asterisks? Asterics? Asterix? No, that last is a cartoon character.
As it turned out, I did have it right, but looking at it got me thinking about where it came from and about its uses in general.
I did see the "aster" or star element in the word once I really looked at it. At first, I associated to the word 'disaster', but that was probably because of the "risk" at the end of the word. But there is nothing threatening about an asterisk. It simply comes from the Greek asteriskos (ἀστερίσκος), meaning "little star".
It turns out that there isn't a huge amount that is known about the origin of the asterisk, and probably less that can be substantiated. But I did in the course of my wanderings find this cool website called
Typographic Marks Unknown , which takes a look at all those little symbols on the page that we forget to be curious about through overfamiliarity. The page cites the Bringhurst Bible and says that our little star appeared in Sumerian pictographs, and has been used as a symbol for at least 5000 years.
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hmmm...well yeah that does make sense now...aster being star...i have always (well whenever i have had to spell the actual word) spelt it asterisk but you say tomato i say tomato....
ReplyDeletebtw i discovered typographic marks unknown last week and have bored people crazy at work with my knowledge haha, but hey these little factoids make sense to our lives and enriches our understanding of it all...
good stuff..cheerio for now!
Dan, that's pretty funny that you just happened upon Typographic Marks Unknown yourself recently. What was your pathway there?
Deletehaha..i was looking at the keyboard thinking..'whats that button there for? in fact what is that button????'
DeleteThere are a lot of buttons on mine that I have no idea about. I was with the family over the Easter weekend and couldn't get my computer to sync up with the wireless. So I asked my thirteen year old nephew to take a look and he fairly quickly discovered that I had pushed a button that turned the wireless off.
DeleteGood thing he's a nice guy.
Loved this! Loved the link to other typographic marks, too, and remembering the name of the pilcrow. I think I even learned the "C" chapter connection once, but forgot, so now I will try to remember so I answer my daughter when she asks, "Why is the "P" backwards?"
ReplyDeleteKathleen, I have to admit that I just skimmed right on past the pilcrow. I will hold it in reserve.
DeleteNot that there's ever really a shortage of ignorance on my part.
Oooh, this is a good one! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNate, good to see you around these parts. I could see how it might be the kind of topic that would appeal to you.
DeleteI can't say I've thought about the origin of this mark, but I think about the word itself, especially when someone pushes me close to the edge by pronouncing it "asterick."
ReplyDelete===============================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
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That's a scary thought, Peter. Although I have to admit that saying it and spelling it so much has made me less sure of what I actually say when the word actually comes up. I wonder if I may have slipped in an asterick from time to time.
DeleteOh, geez.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you say "asterisk" in my presence, I'll be gentleman enough to pretend I didn't hear it.
Wait a minute. I'm getting confused. Now I can't say asterisk?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBlazes! My copy editor must have gone home for the evening. Of course I meant to write "`If you say `asteriCk'..."
ReplyDeleteThank you for illustrating the problem so aptly, Peter.
ReplyDeleteOne learns quickly in a newsroom to do the best job possible and, failing that, to shift the blame. It was the copy desk's fault.
ReplyDeleteBut where does the copy editor get to shift blame to, then?
DeleteIt's probably best that I not commit the answer to writing.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget its current use in the emoticon world... always means a kiss!
ReplyDeleteLike this:
;-* (an eye winking and the asterisk is the mouth)
I didn't know that, Julie, but then, I'm not the biggest user of emoticons in the world.
DeleteI have to say that if someone was coming toward me winking and puckering up their lips to one side of their face, romance is not the first thing that would come to mind...
Sumerian texts? That's crazy. I was about to posit that symbols have probably been around longer than letters, but aren't letters kind of like symbols too...?
ReplyDeleteA smarter man than me probably knows.
-Brian O
Well, I can't say that my chain of documentation is the most air tight, but it makes sense to me (once I think about it) that simple pictorial symbols would have been with us a long, long time.
DeleteYou're plenty smart, Brian, but I don't think smartness is all one would need to get to the root of this mystery.