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Name For <<<Marks>>>

Does anyone know what the name of punctuation marks <<< like these >>> is/are -- besides "sideways caret"?

Thanks,

Joyce T. Maughan, Salt Lake City, Utah

greater-than and less-than?

Brian Blum

I'm not sure that they have special names (e.g., "&" = ampersand), but they are commonly referred to as "greater than" (>) and "less than" (<) signs. Hope this helps...

John Yoak

Most commonly referred to as "greater than" and "lesser than", also known as "right arrowhead" and "left arrowhead". They are not true punctuation marks as far as I know and have no legitimate purpose as punctuation. They are frequently used to catch the eye and set something apart. Same category as emoticons.

D.A. "Duke" Drouillard

Angle brackets or chevrons Law Office of Steven R. Storch, Durham, North Carolina

In the English Language it is true that they don't serve much of a purpose, but I did notice when studying French that instead of the " they use << >> for quotations in novels (Well that is at least the only place I saw them). So, they're not completely useless, but I usually call them brackets even though [] and {} are also brackets.

Lesley Hoenig

The authoritive description is now and has always been "funny little Gates".

Dick Howland

And the answer is: angle brackets.

The only reason I know, ironically, is because of Lesley's post. When she said that the {} typographical marks are called brackets, I said to myself: "No, they aren't, those are braces." Well, it turns out that Leslie and I are both right. The {} marks are known both as "curly brackets" and "braces." But, more importantly, Wikipedia's entry for brackets also reveals that the <> marks are referred to as angle brackets. Ta-ta. For a list of these and a whole bunch of other typographical marks and what they're called, click on the following url, and, hopefully, all will be revealed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket

BTW, Lesley, that article also states that a pair of angle brackets together forms a guillemet. And, sure enough, here's how dictionary.com defines a guillemet: "Either of a pair of punctuation marks (<) or (>) used in some languages, such as French and Russian, to mark the beginning and end of a quotation."

Which leads to the question: Whatever would we do without the Internet? But you'll have to excuse me because the next question I asked myself is: If you don't stop fritzing around and get back to work, how are you going to pay the mortgage this month? ;-0 So, if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to writing some opposition papers to a summary judgment motion. All things considered, however, it's been a good day. I've learned not one but two new words today.

Robert A. Merring

James H. Pardue, Cary, North Carolina

Hotdocs uses Guillemets (great word, BTW) to set apart its variables from the rest of the text.

Lisa Ruinquist

Thank you all.....

guillemets angle brackets (in lieu of jail time?) chevrons funny little gates brackets greater than and less than

I wanted a term because I use them in my email replies to clients when letting them know that "my replies are interspersed in your email below enclosed <<<in marks >>> like these".

And here are the other new words I learned today (Thanks to Jim Pardue -- see below):

interpunct solidus asterism dagger interobang

Fun to have words for those marks!

Ta................ (now what's that --- just a "string of dots" or "extended ellipsis" or, let's see, how about my new term for it, "cabilio"?)

Joyce T. Maughan, Salt Lake City, Utah

or angle brackets in BNF parlance

John Davidson

In math, [] are brackets and {} are braces. (I know, I know, more than anyone wanted to know.)

William B. Richards, New Albany, Ohio

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