A dele or deleatur (, ) is an obelism (a proofreading symbol) used to mark something for deletion.
Name
Dele, the more common term in modern American
English language (sometimes used as a verb, e.g. "Dele that
paragraph"), coincides with the imperative form of the Latin
delere ("to delete"). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes an earlier use in English of
deleatur (Latin "let it be deleted"), and suggests that
dele in English may have been an
abbreviation for the longer word.
Origin
The origin of the symbol appears to be an archaic letter D in the
Kurrent script, as an abbreviation for
dele or
deleatur. It is markedly similar (if not identical in some cases) to the symbol for the
Pfennig () which is an archaic lowercase d, for
denarius. As with most hand-written letters and symbols, its appearance is variable.
Computer representation
There is no character for the dele symbol in
Unicode as of version 15.0 from September 2022,
although its addition has been proposed.
The visually similar character for
Pfennig at from the Currency Symbols block is often used to represent a dele in Unicode. The same Unicode character is also used for a completely different flourish of approval in
Dutch language.
Usage
; insert semicolon; insert comma; and transpose circled text.)]]The dele is used in
proofreading and
copy editing, where it may be written over the selected text itself (such that it often resembles a stretched cursive e), or in the margin alongside the selected text, which is usually struck through with a line.
The stricken text or the dele itself may be framed by top and bottom curved brackets, as in the above example, to indicate that the space left after deletion is to be closed up. As the need for such closing up can usually be inferred by context, however, the brackets are often omitted.
A dele can be undone with a stet.
External links
