the.com/paragraph
a thought big enough to need walls but small enough to climb over.
means A distinct block of text dealing with a single idea or point, set off from the rest by a new line or indentation.
from From the Greek 'paragraphos,' literally 'written beside' — from 'para' (beside) and 'graphein' (to write). In ancient manuscripts, scribes had no paragraph breaks as we know them; instead they drew a short mark in the margin to flag where a new section or change of speaker began. So the original paragraph wasn't a chunk of text at all but the little line drawn next to it — the gatekeeper became the gate. The word travelled through Latin and Old French before settling into English.
- greek roots
- From paragraphos, a mark beside text to flag a break.
- old signal
- Pilcrow symbol once marked paragraphs before line breaks did.
- no rules
- No fixed length exists; one sentence can be plenty.
- indent origin
- Indents began as gaps left for hand-drawn pilcrows.