English
virgil
Noun

virgil (plural virgils)

  1. (typography, UK, obsolete) Synonym of slash#English|slash ⟨/⟩.
    • 1824, J. Johnson, Typographia:
      There be five manner of points and divisions most used among cunning men; the which if they be well used, make the sentence very light and easy to be understood, both to the reader and hearer: and they be these, virgil,—come,—parenthesis,—plain point,—interrogative... it is a slender stroke leaning forward, betokening a little short rest, without any perfectness yet of sentence.
    • 1828, Richard Thomson, Illustrations of the History of Great Britain, Vol. II ↗, page 145 ↗:
      No points were used by the ancient printers, excepting the colon and the period; but, after some time, a short oblique stroke, called a virgil, was introduced, which answered to the modern comma.
    • 1842, F. Francillon, An Essay on Punctuation ↗, page 9 ↗:
      Whoever introduced the several points, it seems that a full-point, a point called come, answering to our colon-point, a point called virgil answering to our comma-point, the parenthesis-points and interrogative-point, were used at the close of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century.
    • 1990, John McDermott, Punctuation for Now, page 20:
      Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines.
Virgil
Proper noun
  1. Pūblius Vergilius Marō (70-19 BCE), Roman epic writer from the Augustan period, best known for writing the Aeneid.
  2. (mainly US) A male given name.
    • 1985,Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days, Penguin (1990) ISBN 9781101640289
      A wedding dance at the Avon Ballroom on July 22nd for Mary Paterek and Virgil Loucks (imagine, a youth named Virgil, he must be the youngest Virgil in Minnesota, maybe the last of the Virgil line).
Translations Translations
  • Italian: Virgilio
  • Russian: Вёрджил


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