virgil

plural virgils

1. UKarchaicmediaSynonym of slash ⟨/⟩.

   Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines.

   1990, John McDermott, Punctuation for Now, page 20

   3 more examples

   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.

   1824, J. Johnson, Typographia

   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.

   1828, Richard Thomson, Illustrations of the History of Great Britain, Vol. II, page 145

   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.

   1842, F. Francillon, An Essay on Punctuation, page 9

   Synonyms: slash

1. Pūblius Vergilius Marō (70–19 BCE), Roman epic writer from the Augustan period, best known for writing the Aeneid.
2. USmainlyA male given name from Latin.

   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).

   1985, Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days, Penguin, published 1990, →ISBN

3. A settlement in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Regional Municipality of Niagara, Ontario, Canada.
4. A place in the United States:
   1. A township and village therein, in Kane County, Illinois.
   2. A minor city in Greenwood County, Kansas.
   3. A town and census-designated place therein, in Cortland County, New York.
   4. A small town in Beadle County, South Dakota.
   5. An unincorporated community in Roane County, West Virginia.