semicolonn.
/sɛmɪˈkəʊlən/ 1. A punctuation-mark consisting of a dot placed above a comma (;): see quots. In present use it is the chief stop intermediate in value between the comma and the full stop; usually separating sentences the latter of which limits the former, or marking off a series of sentences or clauses of co-ordinate value.
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society > communication > writing > written character > punctuation > [noun] > comma, colon, or semicolon
subdistinction1585
colon1589
comma1599
semicolona1637
a1637 B. Jonson Eng. Gram. in Wks. (1692) 690 A Semicolon is a distinction of an imperfect Sentence, wherein with somewhat a longer Breath, the Sentence following is included.
1644 R. Hodges Eng. Primrose sig. N3 At a comma, stop a little..At a semi-colon, somewhat more.
1770 P. Luckombe Conc. Hist. Printing 267 The Semicolon is a Point of great use to enforce and illustrate what has been advanced, and digested by the Comma... The Semicolon is used as an Abbreviation, in the word Esquire.
1795 L. Murray Eng. Gram. 166 The semicolon is sometimes used, when the preceding member of the sentence does not of itself give a complete sense, but depends on the following clause; and sometimes when the sense of that member would be complete without the concluding one.
1823 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1971) V. 274 Mrs Gillman has made me write this note to the stoppage or as a semi-colon at least, of my Breakfast, for one cause & two reasons.
2. A mark resembling a semicolon: chiefly attributive in semicolon butterfly, a North American butterfly, Polygonia interrogationis, which has a pale mark resembling a semicolon on the underside of its lower wings.
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1862 T. W. Harris Treat. Insects Injurious to Vegetation (ed. 3) 289 Vanessa interrogationis, Semicolon Butterfly... Under side of the wings in some rust-red..with a pale gold-colored semicolon on the middle of the hinder pair.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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n.a1637