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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcc3!sdcc6!calmasd!dmm
From: dmm@calmasd.UUCP (David M. MacMillan)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Names for symbols
Message-ID: <514@calmasd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jul-85 16:50:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: calmasd.514
Posted: Tue Jul 30 16:50:32 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Aug-85 06:41:02 EDT
References: <590@vaxine.UUCP> <123@ubu.warwick.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmm@calmasd.UUCP (David M. MacMillan)
Organization: Calma Company, San Diego, CA
Lines: 18


     If memory serves, a "!" is referred to as a "screamer"
in Dorothy Sayers' Murder Must Advertise.  The context is
1920's (30's? - I confess my ignorance) British newspaper
slang.

     As a pet peeve, I prefer to call "(" a parenthesis,
"[" a bracket, "{" a brace, and "<" an angle.  I found the
tendency of fellow-students in my undergraduate days to refer
to "[" as a square bracket, "{" as a curly bracket, and "<"
as a pointy bracket as annoying as all get out (there's 
another colloquial phrase for you).  

     Newspaper history might provide many interesting names
for symbols.


                               David M. MacMillan