Interrobang#Inverted interrorbang

A sentence ending with an interrobang states a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement, disbelief, or confusion in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question.{{cite web

| access-date = August 6, 2019

| archive-date = August 6, 2019

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190806105531/thoughtco.com/interrobang-punctuation-term-1691181

| title = Interrobang (Punctuation)

| url = https://thoughtco.com/interrobang-punctuation-term-1691181

| url-status = live

| website = ThoughtCo.

}}

For example:

• You call that a hat‽
• Are you out of your mind‽
• Your dog ate what‽
• Are you a dummy‽

Writers using informal language may use several alternating question marks and exclamation marks for even more emphasis. However, this is regarded as poor style in formal writing.{{cite web

| access-date = 2025-05-08

| archive-date = 2015-04-02

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402154718/chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation.html?page=2

| date = 2015-04-02

| edition = 15

| publisher = Chicago Style Q&A

| title = Punctuation

| url = https://chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation.html?page=2

| via = Chicago Manual of Style Online

}}

File:interrobang.svg Linotype font]]

Historically, writers have used multiple consecutive punctuation marks to end a sentence expressing both surprise and question.

{{quote|What the...?! Neves, Called Dead in Fall, Denies It|headline from San Francisco Examiner, May 9, 1936}}

American Martin K. Speckter (June 14, 1915 – February 14, 1988){{cite news|title=Martin K. Speckter, 73, Creator of Interrobang|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/16/obituaries/martin-k-speckter-73-creator-of-interrobang.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320015031/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/16/obituaries/martin-k-speckter-73-creator-of-interrobang.html|archive-date=March 20, 2016|newspaper=New York Times|date=16 February 1988|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} conceptualized the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if copywriters conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine TYPEtalks.{{cite journal|author=Spekter, Martin K. |title=Making a New Point, or, How About That …|journal=TYPEtalks|date=March–April 1962}} Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included exclamaquest, and exclarotive, but he settled on interrobang. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: interrogatio is Latin for "rhetorical question" or "cross-examination";{{ cite web

| first = Gideon O.

| last = Burton

| title = interrogatio

| url = http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/I/interrogatio.htm

| access-date = August 28, 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051119182734/http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/figures/I/interrogatio.htm

| archive-date = November 19, 2005

| website = Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric

| publisher = Brigham Young University

}} bang is printers' slang for the exclamation mark. Graphic treatments for the new mark were also submitted in response to the article.{{cite web

| first = Allan

| last = Haley

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080507055249/http://www.fonthaus.com/xheight/interrobang.cfm

| title = The Interrobang Is Back

| url = http://www.fonthaus.com/xheight/interrobang.cfm

| date = June 2001

| publisher = fonthaus.com

| archive-date = May 7, 2008

| access-date = December 3, 2010

}}

In 1965, Richard Isbell created the Americana typeface for American Type Founders and included the interrobang as one of the characters.{{cite book |last1=Houston |first1=Keith |title=Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks |date=2013 |publisher=W. W. Norton |location=New York |page=29}} In 1968, an interrobang key was available on some Remington typewriters. In the 1970s, replacement interrobang keycaps and typefaces were available for some Smith-Corona typewriters.[http://sites.google.com/site/rpforwarded/Home/interrobang1.jpg Smith-Corona flyer illustrating the Changeable Type system with an exclamation mark / interrobang unit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326214527/http://sites.google.com/site/rpforwarded/Home/interrobang1.jpg |date=March 26, 2009 }} Accessed March 7, 2009.

The interrobang was in vogue for much of the 1960s; the word interrobang appeared in some dictionaries, and the mark was used in magazine and newspaper articles.

Most fonts do not include the interrobang, but it has not disappeared. Lucida Grande, the default font for many UI elements of legacy versions of Apple's OS X operating system, includes the interrobang, and Microsoft provides several versions of the interrobang in the Wingdings 2 character set (on the right bracket and tilde keys on US keyboard layouts), included with Microsoft Office.[http://www.interrobang-mks.com/ The Interrobang: A Twentieth Century Punctuation Mark.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041013080952/http://www.interrobang-mks.com/ |date=October 13, 2004 }} Accessed August 28, 2007. It was accepted into Unicode{{cite web |url=http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf |title=Unicode Code Charts, General Punctuation, 2000–206F |access-date=March 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804231917/http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf |archive-date=August 4, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} and is included in several fonts, including Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial Unicode MS, and Calibri, the default font in the Office 2007, 2010, and 2013 suites.[http://blogs.msdn.com/fontblog/archive/2005/12/22/506936.aspx MSDN fontblog] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307025631/http://blogs.msdn.com/fontblog/archive/2005/12/22/506936.aspx |date=March 7, 2010 }}. Accessed August 28, 2007.

==Upside-down interrobang ==

An upside-down interrobang (combining ¿ and ¡, Unicode character: ⸘), suitable for starting phrases in Spanish, Galician, and Asturian—which use inverted question and exclamation marks—is called an "inverted interrobang" or, rarely, a gnaborretni (interrobang spelled backwards).{{cite web |url=http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2E00.pdf |title=Unicode Code Charts, Supplemental Punctuation, 2E00–2E7F |access-date=March 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812080522/http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2E00.pdf |archive-date=August 12, 2011 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }} In current practice, interrobang-like emphatic ambiguity in Hispanic languages is usually achieved by including both sets of punctuation marks one inside the other (¿¡De verdad!? or ¡¿De verdad?! [Really!?]).RAE's [https://www.rae.es/dpd/interrogaci%C3%B3n Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508023039/https://www.rae.es/dpd/interrogaci%C3%B3n |date=May 8, 2020 }} {{in lang|es}} Older usage, still official but not widespread, recommended mixing the punctuation marks: ¡Verdad? or ¿Verdad!{{cite book |last=de Buen |first=Jorge |title=Manual de diseño editorial |edition=3rd |publisher=Trea |location=Gijón |year=2008 |isbn=978-84-9704-378-6}}{{page needed|date=June 2013}}

{{further information|Upside-down question and exclamation marks#Mixtures}}

{{see also|Unicode input}}

The symbol is encoded in Unicode's General Punctuation block at codepoint {{unichar|203D|Interrobang}}. The inverted interrobang is at codepoint {{unichar|2E18|inverted interrobang}}. Single-character versions of the double-glyph versions are also available at codepoints {{unichar|2048|question exclamation mark}} and {{unichar|2049|exclamation question mark}}.

The State Library of New South Wales, in Australia, uses an interrobang as its logo,{{Cite web |date=2015-11-11|title=State Library {{!}}New South Wales |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/welcome |access-date=2022-01-08 |website=State Library of NSW |archive-date=January 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108134736/https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/welcome|url-status=live}} as does the educational publishing company Pearson, which thus intends to convey "the excitement and fun of learning".{{cite web|url=https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/corporate/global/pearson-dot-com-v2/files/logos/Pearson_Guidelines_Logo.pdf|title=Pearson Brand Guidelines: Logo|date=2016|publisher=Pearson.com|access-date=July 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312102802/https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/corporate/global/pearson-dot-com-v2/files/logos/Pearson_Guidelines_Logo.pdf|archive-date=March 12, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}

The logo of the National Endowment for the Humanities incorporates eight exclamation marks and eight question marks; although their main strokes are separate, they all share the same dot, as in some variants of interrobangs.

Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook used an interrobang in the 2012 United States Seventh Circuit opinion Robert F. Booth Trust v. Crowley.

Australian Federal Court Justice Michael Wigney used an interrobang in the first paragraph of his 2018 judgment in Faruqi v Latham [2018] FCA 1328 (defamation proceedings between former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham and political campaigner and writer Osman Faruqi).{{Cite web|url=https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2018/2018fca1328|title=Faruqi v Latham [2018] FCA 1328|website=www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au|access-date=September 16, 2020|archive-date=January 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125084312/https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2018/2018fca1328|url-status=live}}

In chess, an interrobang is used to represent a dubious move, one that is questionable but possibly has merits.{{cite book |editor-link=Aleksandar Matanović |editor-last=Matanović |editor-first=Aleksander |title=Šahovski Informator |trans-title=Chess Informant |volume=14 |pages=8–9 |year=1973 |location=Belgrade}} (See also the evaluation symbols ?! (dubious move) and !? (interesting move).)

• Irony mark (⸮)
• Inverted question and exclamation marks (¿¡)

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite web | url=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-ca7-10-03285/pdf/USCOURTS-ca7-10-03285-0.pdf |title=Robert F. Booth Trust v. Crowley |first= Frank H |last= Easterbrook|author-link= Frank H. Easterbrook|date= June 13, 2012|page=8| access-date=July 18, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718205353/https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-ca7-10-03285/pdf/USCOURTS-ca7-10-03285-0.pdf | archive-date=July 18, 2018 | url-status=live | df=mdy-all |quote=We don't get it. In order to avoid a risk of antitrust litigation, the company should be put through the litigation wringer (this suit) with certainty‽ How can replacing a 1% or even a 20% chance of a bad thing with a 100% chance of the same bad thing make investors better off?}}{{cite podcast| url= https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/interrobang/| title=Interrobang| website=99% Invisible| publisher= Radiotopia| host=Roman Mars| date= July 10, 2018| access-date= July 29, 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180730035659/https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/interrobang/transcript/|archive-date= July 30, 2018|url-status=live}} }}

{{Wiktionary|‽|!?|?!|interrobang}}{{Commons}}

{{navbox punctuation}}

category:1960s neologisms

category:Latin-script ligatures

category:punctuation

category:symbols introduced in 1962

category:typographical symbols