virgule

See also: virgulé

English

WOTD – 18 January 2009

Borrowed from Middle French virgule, from Latin virgula (“twig; scratch comma”), from virga (“rod, branch”) + -ulus (“forming diminutives”). Doublet of virgula.

virgule (plural virgules)

(typography, obsolete or historical) A medieval punctuation mark similar to the slash ⟨/⟩ or pipe ⟨|⟩ and used as a scratch comma and caesura mark.
- 1990, John McDermott, Punctuation for Now, page 20:
  Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines.
(typography, dated) A slash, ⟨/⟩ or ⟨／⟩.
1. Used to mark line breaks within quotes.
(typography, dated) A pipe, ⟨|⟩.
1. (poetry) Used to mark metrical feet.

typographic character

Borrowed from Latin virgula, diminutive of virga (“rod, branch”).

virgule f

Declension of virgule (soft feminine)

Borrowed from Latin virgula, diminutive of virga (“rod, branch”).

virgule f (plural virgules)

comma (punctuation mark)
(mathematics) decimal point (see usage notes)
En Europe continentale, la virgule permet de noter la partie décimale; pi vaut environ 3,1415. ― In continental Europe, the comma is used to denote the decimal part; pi is about 3.1415.

In France, unlike in English-speaking countries, a comma is used to separate the whole and decimal parts of a decimal, while a space (gap) is used to mark off thousands. So "100,000.9" ("one-hundred thousand point 9") is written in French as "100 000,9".