Tag Archive | grammar

!?

Yeah, I thought the “interrobang” was super cool when I stumbled across it yesterday. It’s an exclamation mark and a question mark either superimposed on one another; i.e., , or if you don’t have the actual symbol for it, one after the other. Anyway, I’m late to the party! Or should I end that with a ‽‽‽‽‽

The Merriam-Webster dictionary online uses the following definition:

a punctuation mark designed for use especially at the end of an exclamatory rhetorical question

So, how late am I to this party? The first known use is in 1967. Yeah, way back then. Not only that, it’s already been on the Simpsons and once that happens, you know it’s old hat. It’s been the name of a publication, worn as a piece of jewelry, and written up in an Huffington Post article. (All this according to comments at the definition page at the Webster’s site.)

There’s even a comedy web site called The Interrobang

Funny how just one word can generate so much activity.