Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur: The defendant and his/her attorney must appear in court.
- a dividing line, as in dates, fractions, a run-in passage of poetry to show verse division, etc.: 3/21/27; “Sweetest love, I do not go/For weariness of thee.” (John Donne)
- a short oblique stroke (/) used in computing; a forward slash.
noun
- printing another name for solidus
thin sloping line, used as a comma in medieval MSS, 1837, from French virgule, from Latin virgula “punctuation mark,” literally “little twig,” diminutive of virga “shoot, rod, stick.” The word had been borrowed in its Latin form in 1728.