interrobang
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9.9
- noun
- /ˈɪntəroʊˌbæŋ/
:
interrobang
- The author used an interrobang in her sentence to express surprise and disbelief simultaneously: "You did what‽"
Examples
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Online writing surely shares the spirit of the interrobang, but the symbol itself has not reappeared.
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"Interrobang" was included in some dictionaries, and for a time you could buy a typewriter with a key dedicated to the mark, but it never quite caught on.
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This punctuation yoking, traditionally confined to comic-book ejaculations such as "What the?!..." had a brief moment in the sun in the 1960s, when, according to a website devoted to this tale, an ad man named Martin K. Speckter promoted the idea of combining the two marks into one, called the "interrobang."
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In informal writing, an interrobang can convey excitement mixed with questioning, like in the phrase "Really‽ That's amazing!"
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When using an interrobang, you can effectively communicate emotions, as in "Are you serious‽" which shows both inquiry and astonishment.
Synonyms
1
1.3
A symbol like a period or comma that separates sentences and shows meaning
How Emphatic
Surface Forms
Morphology
interrobang = interrogate + bang (opaque) = interro + bang
The word is a blend of 'interrogate' and 'bang', but the specific meaning of a punctuation mark is not directly derivable from its components.
Etymology
Interrobang joins interro- from old Latin meaning 'ask' or 'question' and bang, a printer's nickname for the 'exclamation point', so an interrobang shows both a question and strong feeling at the same time.