the.com/semicolon
the punctuation mark for people who can't commit to ending a sentence
means A punctuation mark (;) that links two closely related independent clauses or separates complex list items, falling somewhere between a comma and a full stop.
from A compound of Latin 'semi-' (half) and 'colon,' which comes from the Greek 'kōlon' meaning a limb or, in rhetoric, a clause or section of a sentence. The mark itself is much younger than its name's roots: it emerged in the late 15th century among Italian printers, with the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius often credited with popularizing it. The 'half' acknowledges its in-between status — not as final as the colon's full stop ancestry, just a pause with ambitions.
- greek roots
- Introduced by Italian printer Aldus Manutius in 1494
- survivor symbol
- Tattoo movement marks sentences that could've ended but didn't
- programming pain
- One missing semicolon has crashed billion-dollar code
- vonnegut hated them
- Called them transvestite hermaphrodites representing nothing
- rare in print
- Appears far less often than commas or periods
semicolon project ethiopia — mental health awareness campaign started in 2013 by amy bleuel, uses semicolon as symbol of survival