Dagger (mark)

File:Obelus variants.svg

The dagger symbol originated from a variant of the obelus, originally depicted by a plain line {{char|−}} or a line with one or two dots {{char|÷}}.{{cite book |title=Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-Webster |date=2003 |page=[https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersc00merr_6/page/855 855] |isbn=9780877798095 |url= https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersc00merr_6 |url-access=registration |quote=obelos}} It represented an iron roasting spit, a dart, or the sharp end of a javelin,{{cite book |editor-first=William Harrison |editor-last=Ainsworth |title=The New Monthly Magazine |publisher=Chapman and Hall |volume=125 |date=1862 |page=1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PycaAQAAIAAJ&q=obelos&pg=PA1 |via=Google Books}} symbolizing the skewering or cutting out of dubious matter.

The obelus is believed to have been invented by the Homeric scholar Zenodotus as one of a system of editorial symbols. They marked questionable or corrupt words or passages in manuscripts of the Homeric epics.{{cite book |first=Harold P. |last=Scanlin |editor-first=Alison |editor-last=Salvesen |title=Origen's Hexapla and Fragments: Papers Presented at the Rich Seminar on the Hexapla, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 25th July – 3rd August 1994 |series="Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism" series |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |date=1998 |page=439 |chapter=A New Edition of Origen's Hexapla: How It Might Be Done |isbn=9783161465758 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9xQDu27_HEIC&q=metobelos&pg=PA439}} The system was further refined by his student Aristophanes of Byzantium, who first introduced the asterisk and used a symbol resembling a {{char|⊤}} for an obelus; and finally by Aristophanes' student, in turn, Aristarchus, from whom they earned the name of "Aristarchian symbols".{{cite book |first=Paul D. |last=Wegner |title=A Student's Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible |publisher=InterVarsity Press |date=2006 |page=194 |isbn=9780198147473 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SIMsY6b2n2gC&q=obelos&pg=PA192 |via=Google Books}}{{cite book |first=George Maximilian Anthony |last=Grube |title=The Greek and Roman Critics |publisher=Hackett Publishing |date=1965 |page=128 |isbn=9780872203105 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jerucRW8UmMC&q=obelos&pg=PA128 |via=Google Books}}

While the asterisk (asteriscus) was used for corrective additions, the obelus was used for corrective deletions of invalid reconstructions.{{cite book |title=A Simplified Guide to BHS: Critical Apparatus, Masora, Accents, Unusual Letters & Other Markings |edition=3rd |first1=William R. |last1=Scott |last2=Rüger |first2=H. P. |chapter=BHS Critical Apparatus |location=North Richland Hills, Texas |publisher=Bibal Press |date=1995 |chapter-url= http://www.ericlevy.com/Revel/Cosmogony/Guide%20to%20BHS%20Critical%20Aparatus.PDF |access-date=27 August 2011 |url= https://archive.org/details/simplifiedguidet0000scot |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}} It was used when non-attested words are reconstructed for the sake of argument only, implying that the author did not believe such a word or word form had ever existed. Some scholars used the obelus and various other critical symbols, in conjunction with a second symbol known as the metobelos ("end of obelus"),{{cite web |first=Kevin |last=Knight |url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07316a.htm |title=Hexapla |work=The Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=New Advent LLC |access-date=27 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110904013754/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07316a.htm |archive-date=4 September 2011 |url-status=live}} variously represented as two vertically arranged dots, a {{char|γ}}-like symbol, a mallet-like symbol, or a diagonal slash (with or without one or two dots). They indicated the end of a marked passage.{{cite book |first=Ernst |last=Würthwein |title=The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Biblia Hebraica |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |date=1995 |page=58 |isbn=9780802807885 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FSNKSBObCYwC&q=metobelos&pg=PA58}}

It was used much in the same way by later scholars to mark differences between various translations or versions of the Bible and other manuscripts.{{cite book |first=Daniel H. |last=Garrison |title=The Student's Catullus |date=2004 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |page=184 |isbn=9780806136356 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ESLZMFuTlDYC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PA184 |via=Google Books}} The early Christian Alexandrian scholar Origen ({{circa|184|253}} AD) used it to indicate differences between different versions of the Old Testament in his Hexapla.{{cite book |first=R. Grant |last=Jones |title=Notes on the Septuagint |date=2000 |chapter=The Septuagint in Early Christian Writings |page=4 |chapter-url= http://www.ixoyc.net/data/Fathers/531.pdf |access-date=27 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110813025341/http://ixoyc.net/data/Fathers/531.pdf |archive-date=13 August 2011 |url-status=live}} Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310–320 – 403) used both a horizontal slash or hook (with or without dots) and an upright and slightly slanting dagger to represent an obelus. St. Jerome (c. 347–420) used a simple horizontal slash for an obelus, but only for passages in the Old Testament.{{cite book |editor1-first=William |editor1-last=Smith |editor2-first=Henry |editor2-last=Wace |title=A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines: During the First Eight Centuries – Being A Continuation of 'The Dictionary of the Bible' |volume=III: Hermogenes–Myensis |publisher=John Murray |date=1882 |url= https://archive.org/details/p1dictionaryofch03smituoft |via=Internet Archive}} He describes the use of the asterisk and the dagger as: "an asterisk makes a light shine, the obelisk cuts and pierces".{{cite book |first1=Johann Georg |last1=Hamann |first2=Kenneth |last2=Haynes |title =Writings on Philosophy and Language |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/writingsonphilos0000hama/page/94 94] |isbn=9780199202461 |url= https://archive.org/details/writingsonphilos0000hama |url-access=registration |quote=obelus dagger}}

Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) described the use of the symbol as follows: "The obelus is appended to words or phrases uselessly repeated, or else where the passage involves a false reading, so that, like the arrow, it lays low the superfluous and makes the errors disappear ... The obelus accompanied by points is used when we do not know whether a passage should be suppressed or not."{{cite book |first=Richard Barrie |last=Dobson |title=Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages |volume=2 |publisher=Routledge |date=2000 |page=1038 |isbn=9781579582821 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=om4olQhrE84C&q=obelus%20death&pg=PA1038}}

Medieval scribes used the symbols extensively for critical markings of manuscripts. In addition to this, the dagger was also used in notations in early Christianity, to indicate a minor intermediate pause in the chanting of Psalms, equivalent to the quaver rest notation or the trope symbol in Hebrew cantillation. It also indicates a breath mark when reciting, along with the asterisk, and is thus frequently seen beside a comma.{{cite book |editor-first=Iain |editor-last=Fenlon |first1=Kay |last1=Kaufman Shelemay |first2=Peter |last2=Jeffery |first3=Ingrid |last3=Monson |title=Early Music History: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music |date=1994 |chapter=Oral and written transmission in Ethiopian Christian Chant |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=81 |isbn=9780521451802 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Xt9FzmdCdskC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PA81}}{{cite web |url= http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/obelisk.html |title=Obelisk, Obelus, Dagger |work=Seiyaku.com |access-date=26 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110929075757/http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/obelisk.html |archive-date=29 September 2011 |url-status=live}}

In the 16th century, the printer and scholar Robert Estienne (also known as Stephanus in Latin and Stephens in English) used it to mark differences in the words or passages between different printed versions of the Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus).{{cite book |first=David |last=Martin |title=A Critical Dissertation upon the Seventh Verse of the Fifth Chapter of St. John's First Epistle: There are three that bear record in Heaven, &c. – wherein the authentickness of this text is fully prov'd against the objections of Mr. Simon and the modern Arians |publisher=William and John Innys |chapter=X: Of the Obelus and Semicircle, the passage of St. John is mark'd with in Stephen's Edition |date=1719 |page=65 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4tlbAAAAQAAJ&q=obelus&pg=PA65 |author-link=David Martin (French theologian) |via=Google Books}}

Due to the variations as to the different uses of the different forms of the obelus, there is some controversy as to which symbols can actually be considered an obelus. The {{char|⨪}} symbol and its variant, the {{char|÷}}, is sometimes considered to be different from other obeli. The term 'obelus' may have referred strictly only to the horizontal slash and the dagger symbols.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

The dagger usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. A third footnote employs the double dagger.{{cite web |url= http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=190 |last=Hoefler |first=Jonathan |title=House of Flying Reference Marks, or Quillon & Choil |publisher=Hoefler & Frere-Jones |date=4 June 2009 |author-link=Jonathan Hoefler |access-date=6 April 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100205102319/http://typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=190 |archive-date=5 February 2010 |url-status=dead}} Additional footnotes are somewhat inconsistent and represented by a variety of symbols, e.g., parallels ( {{larger|‖}} ), section sign {{char|§}}, and the pilcrow {{char|¶}}{{snd}} some of which were nonexistent in early modern typography. Partly because of this, superscript numerals have increasingly been used in modern literature in the place of these symbols, especially when several footnotes are required. Some texts use asterisks and daggers alongside superscripts, using the former for per-page footnotes and the latter for endnotes.

The dagger is also used to indicate death, extinction, or obsolescence.{{cite book |author-link=Eric Partridge |first=Eric |last=Partridge |title=You Have a Point There: A Guide to Punctuation and Its Allies | orig-date=1953 | date=2004 | location=London | publisher=Routledge |page=235 |isbn=0-415-05075-8 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OudW3l2IoPUC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PA235}} The asterisk and the dagger, when placed beside years, indicate year of birth and year of death respectively. This usage is particularly common in German.{{cite book |editor=Komitees des Vereins Herold [Editorial Committee of the Herold Association] |title=Genealogisches Handbuch bürgerlicher Familien |trans-title=Genealogical Handbook of Burgher families |volume=5 |language=de |date=1912 |orig-year=1897 |publisher=C. A. Starke |location=Görlitz |url= http://mbc.cyfrowemazowsze.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=3207 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170318085549/http://mbc.cyfrowemazowsze.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=3207 |archive-date=18 March 2017 |via=Mazowiecka Biblioteka Cyfrowa (Masovian Digital Library)}} When placed immediately before or after a person's name, the dagger indicates that the person is deceased.{{cite book |first= Elizabeth |last=Knowles |title=Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199202461 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=r2KIvsLi-2kC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PT1104}}{{cite book |first=Alastair |last=Campbell |title=The Digital Designer's Jargon Buster |date=2004 |publisher=The Ilex Press |page=84 |isbn=9781904705352 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=URyQM0btTbIC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PT87}}{{cite book |editor-first=John |editor-last=Lennard |title=The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2005 |page=140 |chapter=Punctuation |isbn=9780199265381 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0eRtOqjNMxEC&q=obelus%20death&pg=PA140 |via=Google Books}} In this usage, it is referred to as the "death dagger".{{cite web |url= http://www.apsstylemanual.org/oldmanual/parts/authors.htm |title=Author Line |work=The APS Online Style Manual |access-date=26 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120331065709/http://www.apsstylemanual.org/oldmanual/parts/authors.htm |archive-date=31 March 2012 |url-status=dead |publisher=American Psychological Society}} Death-related usages include:

• In biology, the dagger next to a taxon name indicates that the taxon is extinct.{{cite book |first=John D. |last=Reynolds |title=Handbook of Fish Biology and Fisheries |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=2002 |page=108 |isbn=9780632054121 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=V0MWxaEaO00C&q=dagger%20symbol%20extinction&pg=PA108}}{{cite book |first=Colin |last=Tudge |title=The Variety of Life: A Survey and a Celebration of All the Creatures That Have Ever Lived |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2000 |page=93 |chapter=Conventions for Naming Taxa |isbn=9780198604266 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YW-2gnuU0L0C&q=dagger%20symbol%20extinction&pg=PA93 |via=Google Books}}{{cite book |first=David L. |last=Hull |title=Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1990 |page=[https://archive.org/details/scienceasprocess0000hull_i6q1/page/254 254] |isbn=9780226360515 |url = https://archive.org/details/scienceasprocess0000hull_i6q1 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |quote=dagger symbol extinction}}
• In chemistry, the double dagger is used in chemical kinetics to indicate a short-lived transition state species.
• In genealogy, the dagger is used traditionally to mark a death in genealogical records.{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Tamura |title=Genealogy Symbols |url= https://www.tamurajones.net/GenealogySymbols.xhtml |website=Modern Software Experience |access-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307160900/http://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://www.tamurajones.net/GenealogySymbols.xhtml |archive-date=7 March 2022}}
• In chess notation, the dagger may be suffixed to a move to signify the move resulted in a check, and a double dagger denotes checkmate. This is a stylistic variation on the more common {{char|+}} (plus sign) for a check and {{char|#}} (number sign) for checkmate.
• In linguistics, the dagger placed after a language name indicates an extinct language.
• In philology, the dagger indicates an obsolete form of a word or phrase. As language that has become obsolete in everyday use tends to live on elsewhere, the dagger can indicate language only occurring in poetical texts{{Cite book| first=John R. Clark | last=Hall | author-link=John Richard Clark Hall | title=A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary for the Use of Students | edition=2nd | location=New York | publisher=Macmillan | year=1916 | pages=vi, vii | url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31543/pg31543-images.html | via=Project Gutenberg}} or "restricted to an archaic, literary style".{{Cite book | first=Michael Alan | last=Jones | title=Foundations of French Syntax | series=Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1996 | isbn=0-521-38104-5 | page=xxv}}
• In the Oxford English Dictionary, the dagger symbol indicates an obsolete word.{{cite web |url= http://www.oed.com/public/oed3guide |title=Guide to the Third Edition of the OED |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=26 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110830221219/http://www.oed.com/public/oed3guide |archive-date=30 August 2011 |url-status=live}}

Non-death usages include:

• The asteroid 37 Fides, the last asteroid to be assigned an astronomical symbol before the practice faded, was assigned the dagger.
• In Anglican chant pointing, the dagger indicates a verse to be sung to the second part of the chant.
• In some early printed Bible translations, a dagger or double dagger indicates that a literal translation of a word or phrase is to be found in the margin.
• In library cataloging, a double dagger delimits MARC subfields.
• On a cricket scorecard or team list, the dagger indicates the team's wicket-keeper.{{cite web |url= http://www.espncricinfo.com/wc2007/engine/match/247499.html |title=Cricket Scorecard: 43rd Match, Super Eights: Australia v Sri Lanka at St George's |date=16 April 2007 |publisher=ESPN Cricinfo |access-date=19 March 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150404162555/http://www.espncricinfo.com/wc2007/engine/match/247499.html |archive-date=4 April 2015 |url-status=live}}
• Some logicians use the dagger as an affirmation ('it is true that ...') operator.{{Cite journal| last=Beall |first=Jc |title=Christ: A Contradiction |journal=Journal of Analytic Theology |volume=7 |pages=400–433 |doi=10.12978/jat.2019-7.090202010411 |doi-access=free}}
• The palochka is transliterated to a double dagger in the ISO 9 standard for converting Cyrillic to Latin
• In psychological statistics the dagger indicates that a difference between two figures is not significant to a p<0.05 level, however is still considered a "trend" or worthy of note. Commonly this will be used for a p-value between 0.1 and 0.05.
• In mathematics and, more often, physics, a dagger denotes the Hermitian adjoint of an operator; for example, A^† denotes the adjoint of A. This notation is sometimes replaced with an asterisk, especially in mathematics. An operator is said to be Hermitian if A^† = A.{{MathWorld|title=Dagger|urlname=Dagger}}
• In textual criticism and in some editions of works written before the invention of printing, daggers enclose text that is believed not to be original.

{{clear left}}

Image:Daggers.svgs, showing the differences between stylized and non-stylized characters. Fonts from left to right: DejaVu Sans, Times New Roman, LTC Remington Typewriter, Garamond, and Old English Text MT]]

{{clear left}}

While daggers are freely used in English-language texts, they are often avoided in other languages because of their similarity to the Christian cross.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

• {{unichar|2020|DAGGER}}
• {{unichar|2021|DOUBLE DAGGER}}
• {{unichar|2E36|DAGGER WITH LEFT GUARD}} – used in Alexander John Ellis's "palaeotype" transliteration to indicate retracted pronunciation{{Cite web |url= https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09425-n3740-turnedpunct.pdf |title=L2/09-425: Proposal to encode six punctuation characters in the UCS |date=5 December 2009 |first=Michael |last=Everson |access-date=24 March 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160407035642/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09425-n3740-turnedpunct.pdf |archive-date=7 April 2016 |url-status=live}}
• {{unichar|2E37|DAGGER WITH RIGHT GUARD}} – used in Alexander John Ellis's "palaeotype" transliteration to indicate advanced pronunciation
• {{unichar|2E38|TURNED DAGGER}} – used in Alexander John Ellis's "palaeotype" transliteration to indicate retroflex pronunciation
• {{unichar|2E4B|TRIPLE DAGGER}} – A variant with three handles.File:Triple Dagger.png

The dagger should not be confused with the symbols {{unichar|271D|Latin cross|nlink=}}, {{unichar|253C|box drawings light vertical and horizontal|nlink=Box drawing characters}}, or other cross symbols.

The double dagger should not be confused with the {{unichar|2628|Cross of Lorraine|nlink=}}, or {{unichar|2626|Orthodox cross|nlink=}}, or {{unichar|01C2|Latin Letter Alveolar Click|nlink=palatal click}} in IPA, or {{unichar|167E|Canadian syllabics Woods-Cree Final Th |nlink=Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics}}.

• {{Annotated link |Annotation}}
• {{Annotated link |Marginalia}}
• {{Annotated link |Textual criticism}}

{{Clear}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|2}}

{{navbox punctuation}}

Category:Punctuation

Category:Typographical symbols

Category:Ancient Greek punctuation