separatrix

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English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin separatrix, the feminine form of separator (originally owing to an implied līnea (“line”)), from sēparāre (“to divide; to separate”) + -trix (forming female agents); equivalent to separate +‎ -trix. First developed as a decimal mark among the medieval Arab mathematicians, whence a shorter variant gave rise to the decimal comma employed by many European countries and their former colonies.

Pronunciation

Noun

separatrix (plural separatrixes or separatrices)

  1. (typography, historical) The ⟨L⟩ or pipe ⟨|⟩ mark formerly used to divide integers from decimals.
    Synonyms: pipe, slash
    • 1660, Jonas Moore, Moor's Arithmetick, page 13:
      Therefore in writing of decimall parts let the separatrix be always used.
  2. (typography, obsolete) Synonym of decimal point, which replaced such marks.
  3. (typography) The proofreader's mark resembling a slash ⟨ / ⟩ or vertical bar ⟨ | ⟩ placed after a note in the margin to indicate that it should replace the item(s) struckthrough in the running text or to separate it from other margin notes.
  4. A terminator: a line on a partially-illuminated surface separating the lit and shaded regions.
  5. (physics) The line between regions having different magnetic fields.
  6. (mathematics) The boundary separating two modes of behavior in a differential equation.

Further reading

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