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An obelus (plural: obeluses or obeli) is a term in codicology and latterly in typography that refers to a historical annotation mark which has resolved to three modern meanings:
The word "obelus" comes from (obelós), the Ancient Greek word for a sharpened stick, spit, or pointed pillar. This is the same root as that of the word 'obelisk'.
In mathematics, the first symbol is mainly used in Anglophone countries to represent the mathematical operation of division and is called an obelus. In editing texts, the second symbol, also called a dagger mark is used to indicate erroneous or dubious content; (2025). 9781400857692, Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400857692 or as a reference mark or footnote indicator. (1998). 9788186062258, Allied Publishers. ISBN 9788186062258 It also has other uses in a variety of specialist contexts.
Originally, one of these marks (or a plain line) was used in ancient manuscripts to mark passages that were suspected of being corrupted or spurious; the practice of adding such marginal notes became known as obelism. The dagger symbol , also called an obelisk, is derived from the obelus, and continues to be used for this purpose.
The obelus is believed to have been invented by the Homeric scholar Zenodotus, as one of a system of editorial symbols. They marked questionable or corrupt words or passages in manuscripts of the Homeric epics. The system was further refined by his student Aristophanes of Byzantium, who first introduced the asterisk and used a symbol resembling a for an obelus; and finally by Aristophanes' student, in turn, Aristarchus, from whom they earned the name of "Aristarchian symbols".
In some commercial and financial documents, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, a variant () is used in the margins of letters to indicate an enclosure, where the upper point is sometimes replaced with the corresponding number. In Finland, the obelus (or a slight variant, ) is used as a symbol for a correct response (alongside the check mark, , which is used for an incorrect response).
In the 7.0 release of Unicode, was one of a group of "Ancient Greek textual symbols" that were added to the specification (in the block Supplemental Punctuation).
This form of the obelus was also occasionally used as a mathematical symbol for subtraction in Northern Europe; such usage continued in some parts of Europe (including Norway and, until fairly recently, Denmark).. Reprint of 1928 edition. In Italy, Poland and Russia, this notation is sometimes used in engineering to denote a range of values (for example, "24.1÷25.6" means the range of values between 24.1 and 25.6).
In some commercial and financial documents, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, another form of the obelus the commercial minus sign is used to signify a negative remainder of a division operation.
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