No, seriously.

A friend used a tilda where I would have used a dash but most people now use a space-hyphen-space and another friend commented on the majesty of a well-used tilda. So I started worrying about it; it must once have been not only needed, but important enough to include on a keyboard. But I only ever see it used to indicate ellision and / or abbreviation in long filenames on my computer!

So...

What is the correct usage of a tilda? ~

What possible purpose could one of these little guys have? ¬

Is there a non-programming usage of the pipe character? |

Has anybody ever used a macron without regretting it? ¯

When they used the macron, did they actually mean an underscore, and if so, why? _

Is it ever correct to use æ instead of ae?

Dear Gaius,
Could you please translate this into English???
Tilda means ready-cook rice to me...
Susiex

Tilda means ready-cook rice to me...

Hmmm, maybe that's why it isn't a commonly used punctuation mark.
Maybe in the menus of the cheaper curry houses?

G

Lol, Susie. Me too!

"What's for supper, mummy?"
"There might be a bit of ¯i-cheese in the fridge, or maybe, you could have ~?"
"Yæck! That ¯i-cheese is getting too old! It's more like _i-cheese."
"Don't be silly dear, it does look a bit ¬ but I'm sure it will be fine if you make sure it's |ing hot before you eat it."

The tilde is the sign in Spanish used above the n to make it sound like ny, i.e. mañana sounding like manyana. I assume it's on the English keyboard to allow you to type Spanish names.

Chris

Yes, but...

How is one supposed to use it? As it is, mañana would have to be written man~ana. I guess in the olden days, you would have typed a backspace then the tilda would have been overtyped? Can't do that so easily on a computer screen...

Ah... progress.

So is macron also an accent?

You meet it in dictionaries, where it stands in for the root of the word:

Work
~ing
~ed

but I'm not sure what use it has as punctuation in prose. Fowler only gives the Spanish use, and in Portuguese to indicate nasalisation, as over the a in Sao.

So I think your friend is using it incorrectly.

Dunno about the others!

Emma

Well, from science class, I've always used it to mean 'about', 'around the median/average' or 'approximately'. So ~2lbs, means 'roughly 2 pounds to within a couple of ounces here or there'. Or, if I was rounding up pennies to pounds, ~£10 = give or take a few pennies.



- NaomiM

<Added>

Isn't it called a curlicue?

I think your friend is using it incorrectly

To be honest, that may not be a major revelation. Were I to be stuck on a question of grammar whilst talking to Chris Tarrant, the friend I would choose to call would undoubtedly be someone else. (Though he has an enviable knowledge of James Brown trivia.)

¯¬_/¯\_/¯|_|^|~¬~`'"!

Found the macron; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macron

Curlicue -
A fancy twist or curl, such as a flourish made with a pen
A round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as formed by leaves or flower petals)
A short twisting line

So I guess that you are ~right even if not right.

You're quite right - you can't use it for a Spanish word! It probably wasn't there on typewriter keyboards - just came in computers, maybe.

Chris

<Added>

Make that 'with computers'.

In Word, go to 'insert symbol' in the inster drop down menu (I think it's in there). That will bring up a whole box of symbols such as the one you mention, and you can insert them that way.

Hope that helps.

JB

<Added>

*insert drop down menu

Thanks, but what I think I was searching for was "Insert History Of Selected Symbol"!