_Pollux writes_:
“Pilcrow” is a strange word for the punctuation mark used to signify new paragraphs. Lucy, one of the letter-writers in our ongoing contest in which you address the punctuation mark of your choice, had to look it up. We did, too. Where does it come from?
The words “pilcrow” and “paragraph” may have a common ancestor. Walter William Skeat, in his _Notes On English Etymology_ (1904), theorizes how the Latin _paragraphus_ (“paragraph”) eventually became the word “pilcrow.”
First, _paragraphus_ became corrupted as _paragraphe_.
_Paragraphe_ became _parragraffe_, to which an “excrescent t,” as Skeats calls it, was added at the end.
The variant _pargrafte_ appears in the _Ortus Vocabulorum_, a Latin-English dictionary printed in 1500 by the delightfully named Wynkyn de Worde. The variant _pylcrafte_ appears in another dictionary, the _Promptorium Parvulorum et Clericorum_.
So _pargrafte_ became _pylcrafte_.
“This is rather violent,” Skeats admits, but cites the change of r to l as a common occurrence in Indo-European languages. “Due to mere laziness,” _pylcraft_ or _pilcrafte_ became corrupted as “pilcrow.” Now you know!
Declare your love for the pilcrow “here.”:http://emdashes.com/2010/07/so-you-love-punctuation-write.php
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