Section sign

Image:Bundesministerium für Justiz logo.svg

The section sign is often used when referring to a specific section of a legal code. For example, in Bluebook style, "Title 16 of the United States Code Section 580p" becomes "16 U.S.C. §{{nbsp}}580p".{{cite web |title=Guides: Bluebook Guide: Federal Statutes |url=http://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=261289&p=2383798 |publisher=Georgetown University Law Library |access-date=December 6, 2018 |language=en |date=August 9, 2018}} The section sign is frequently used along with the pilcrow (or paragraph sign), {{char|¶}}, to reference a specific paragraph within a section of a document.

While {{char|§}} is usually read in spoken English as the word "section", many other languages use the word "paragraph" exclusively to refer to a section of a document (especially of legal text), and use other words to describe a paragraph in the English sense. Consequently, in those cases "§" may be read as "paragraph", and may occasionally also be described as a "paragraph sign", but this is a description of its usage, not a formal name.{{cite web | title = The Unicode Standard, Version 10.0 – C1 Controls and Latin-1 Supplement | url = https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0080.pdf | access-date = 2017-10-07}}{{cite web |title=Some text-to-speech voices read the section symbol as paragraph instead of section |url=http://www.openradar.me/32449535 |access-date=2017-10-07 }}

When duplicated, as {{char|§§}}, it is read as the plural "sections". For example, "§§{{nbsp}}13–21" would be read as "sections 13 through 21", much as {{char|pp.}} (pages) is the plural of {{char|p.}}, meaning page.

It may also be used with footnotes when asterisk {{char|*}}, dagger {{char|†}}, and double dagger {{char|‡}} have already been used on a given page.

It is common practice to follow the section sign with a non-breaking space so that the symbol is kept with the section number being cited.{{cite book |last=Felici |first=James |year=2012 |title=The Complete Manual of Typography |edition=Second |isbn=978-0-321-77326-5 }}{{rp|212, 233}}

The section sign is itself sometimes a symbol of the justice system,{{efn|The symbol {{unichar|2696|Scales|nlink=Scales of justice (symbol)}} is more typical.}}{{cn|date=November 2023}} in much the same way as the Rod of Asclepius is used to represent medicine. For example, Austrian courts use the symbol in their logo.

The section sign appeared in several early computer text encodings. It was placed at {{tt|0xA7}} (167) in ISO-8859-1, a position that was inherited by Unicode as code point {{unichar|00A7|Section Sign}}.

Two possible origins are often posited for the section sign: most probably, that it is a ligature formed by the combination of two S glyphs (from the Latin signum sectiōnis).{{cite book |title=Clash of Symbols |last=Webb |first=Stephen |year=2018 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |type=eBook |isbn=978-3-319-71350-2 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=529GDwAAQBAJ&dq=signum+sectionis&pg=PA22}}{{cite web |publisher=Monotype Imaging |title=The section sign |series=Punctuation series |last=Radoeva |first=Krista |url=https://www.fontsmith.com/blog/2017/01/12/punctuation-series-the-section-sign |date=2017-01-12 |access-date=2020-07-19}}{{cite book |page=32 |url={{GBurl|id=aR1PAAAAYAAJ}} |title=Aids to English Composition, Prepared for Students of All Grades |first=Richard Green |last=Parker |year=1851 |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Brothers}} Some scholars, however, are skeptical of this explanation.{{cite thesis |year=1894 |first=Erwin Herbert |last=Lewis |title=The History of the English Paragraph |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=11, 16–17 |url={{GBurl|id=HP00AQAAMAAJ}} |oclc=6077629}}

Others have theorized that it is an adaptation of the Ancient Greek {{lang |grc |παράγραφος}} (paragraphos),{{cite book |via=Internet Archive |page=1784 |title= Webster's Complete Dictionary of the English Language |last=Webster |first=Noah |author-link=Noah Webster |year=1886 |location=London |publisher=George Bell & Sons |edition=Authorized and Unabridged |chapter=Arbitrary signs used in writing and printing |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/websterscomplete00webs/page/1784/mode/2up}} a catch-all term for a class of punctuation marks used by scribes with diverse shapes and intended uses.{{cite book |last=Garulli |first=Valentina |title=The Materiality of Text: Placement, Perception, and Presence of Inscribed Texts in Classical Antiquity |date=2018-10-09 |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-37943-5 |editor-last=Petrovic |editor-first=Andrej |page=106 |chapter=Lectional Signs in Greek Verse Inscriptions |type=eBook |doi=10.1163/9789004379435_006 |s2cid=198732053 |editor2=Thomas |editor-first2=Edmund |editor3=Petrovic |editor-first3=Ivana}}

The modern form of the sign, with its modern meaning, has been in use since the 15th century.{{cite book |title=The history of the English paragraph |page= [https://archive.org/details/historyofenglish00lewirich/page/16/mode/1up 16] |via=Archive.org |last=Lewis |first=Edwin Herbert |date=1894 |publisher=University of Chicago}}

In Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk, the {{Char|§}} symbol is used repeatedly to mean "bureaucracy". In his English translation of 1930, Paul Selver translated it as "red tape".

• Scilicet ("it may be known") is sometimes rendered using a § mark instead of "viz."

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• {{Wiktionary-inline|Section signs}}

{{navbox punctuation}}

Category:Punctuation

Category:Typographical symbols