Proper name for characters 1

[razalas]

I know the proper names for the following characters:

~ tilde
# octothorpe
^ caret
& ampersand
* asterisk
() parentheses
{} braces
[] brackets
/\ slash
| vertigule

but are there proper names for the following other than the common names formed by describing how they are used?

@ "at" sign
$ "dollar" sign
% "percent" sign
+ "plus" sign
- "minus" sign
= "equals" sign
_ underline

And, I am comfortable with the common names of the following, but maybe they have their own proper names?

! exclamation mark
? question mark

Just curious.

TIA

"Code what you mean,
and mean what you code!
But by all means post your code!"

Razalas

 

[KenCunningham]

Indeed it is Rosie.()'s should never be bracketed with all the other types discussed above.

 

[strongm]

Er...didn't I say that?

 

[rosieb]

Sorry, strongm , I missed your comment, apologies.

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[strongm]

No, no. The more the merrier.

 

[rosieb]

Do we have a quorum?

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[strongm]

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Indeed it is Rosie.()'s should never be bracketed with all the other types discussed above.

Surely there shouldn't be an apostrophe in "()'s" to denote multiple brackets? ;o)

 

[KenCunningham]

Point taken - perhaps it's required in the sense of 'to bracket together' though? Oops - there goes the tin opener on that can of worms again!! ;-)

 

[rosieb]

Almost deja vu, just had a similar argument with my husband (I won, but I was cooking, I suspect he felt he might not eat if he pushed it!!)

However, much as I, personally, don't like apostrophes in this type of construction, I can see an argument that they provide clarification that a plural is involved.

I wouldn't do it myself, but I think it's a style issue, so could go either way. (I think I'm allergic to too many punctuation marks, I must have got bitten by a ! as a child, so I tend to go for the minimalist approach.)

Anyway, back to the important stuff, are we agreed? () is just plain brackets - other squiggly things can have exciting names, but brackets is brackets.



Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[ESquared]

Agreement? Heck no! My side of the puddle, you call 'em parentheses. Your side of the puddle, I'll call 'em brackets.

-------------------------------------
A sacrifice is harder when no one knows you've made it.

 

[rosieb]

But we speak proper English, so you're out-voted (on the grounds of being foreign)

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[ESquared]

But my girlfriend--a neutral third party from Brazil--likes American English better than British English, so you're outvoted!

-------------------------------------
A sacrifice is harder when no one knows you've made it.

 

[KenCunningham]

Nope - two all (each, apiece, whatever)!

Are you seriously suggesting that in US English the phrase 'parenthesize together' is used in preference to 'bracket together', as in enclose within a particular group. In addition, if I asked my joiner to hang some shelves on parentheses, he'd have a fit! ;-)

 

[CajunCenturion]

Anyway, back to the important stuff, are we agreed? () is just plain brackets - other squiggly things can have exciting names, but brackets is brackets

What does the OED have to say about it?


Good Luck
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[Thadeus]

Actually Ken, you wouldn't need to say "parenthesize together"... It would be tantamount to saying "bracketize together".

How would you use "bracket together" in a sentence? I'm curious, because I'd like to know how I would say it here....

Thanks,
~Kris

 

[KenCunningham]

Thaedus, It's used as include or included might be. I think a construction we could use would be something like: "We can bracket (or include) together football and tennis as two essentially professional sports played by millions of amateurs.", though I guess a more standard way of saying this would be: "football and tennis can be bracketed together (or included) as examples of essentailly professional sports played by millions of amateurs."

Not sure whether this is 'correct' as such and this is possibly not the best example in the world but I've certainly heard people use such terminology.

 

[Dimandja]

You can't bracket/parenthesize together anything. That's not kosher grammar at all -- bracket isolates from a larger group: you can't 'isolate together'.

Further more, this does not imply the concrete use of ()'s; it's only an illustration of a concept.

 

[columb]

From dictionary.com

tr.v. brack·et·ed, brack·et·ing, brack·ets

1. To furnish or support with a bracket or brackets.
2. To place within or as if within brackets.
3. To classify or group together.
4. To include or exclude by establishing specific boundaries.
5. To fire beyond and short of (a target) in order to determine artillery range.

I've heard and used bracket as group together all my life (in the UK)

Living with a seeker after the truth is infinitely preferable to living with one who thinks they've found it.

 

[LesleyW]

Yeah, you can isolate things together... class of 30 children, Fred and Mary get mumps, you need to isolate them from the rest of the class but not from each other. So you can isolate Mary and Fred together

Or.... we can bracket together Fred and Mary as the children with mumps. The implication here is that the other children don't have mumps, unless of course we were so busy arguing about grammar that we failed to put Fred and Mary in quarantine in time.

(the second sentence of the last paragraph was originally in brackets (the round type) but I removed the brackets in the interests of personal safety. And added this parenthetical explanation... evil laugh)

 

[Dimandja]

I've heard and used bracket as group together all my life

Of course. You just said it again: bracket is group together: not bracket together.