The interrobang (), also known as the interabang (often rendered as ?!, !?, ?!?, ?!!, !??, or !?!), is an unconventional punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of the question mark (also known as the interrogative point) and the exclamation mark (also known in the jargon of printers and programmers as a "bang"). The glyph is a ligature of these two marks and was first proposed in 1962 by Martin K. Speckter.
Application
A sentence ending with an interrobang states a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement, disbelief, or confusion in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question.
For example:
- You call that a hat‽
- Are you out of your mind‽
- Are you a dummy‽
Writers using informal language may use several alternating question marks and exclamation marks for even more emphasis. However, this is regarded as poor style in formal writing.
History
thumb|upright 0.3|class=skin-invert-image|An interrobang in the [[Palatino Linotype font]]
Historically, writers have used multiple consecutive punctuation marks to end a sentence expressing both surprise and question.
Invention
American Martin K. Speckter (June 14, 1915 – February 14, 1988) conceptualized the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if copywriters conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine TYPEtalks. Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included exclamaquest, and exclarotive, but he settled on interrobang. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: interrogatio is Latin for "rhetorical question" or "cross-examination"; bang is printers' slang for the exclamation mark. Graphic treatments for the new mark were also submitted in response to the article.
Early interest
In 1965, Richard Isbell created the Americana typeface for American Type Founders and included the interrobang as one of the characters. In 1968, an interrobang key was available on some Remington typewriters. In the 1970s, replacement interrobang keycaps and typefaces were available for some Smith-Corona typewriters.
The interrobang was in vogue for much of the 1960s; the word interrobang appeared in some dictionaries, and the mark was used in some magazine and newspaper articles. It was accepted into Unicode and is included in several fonts, including Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial Unicode MS, and Calibri, the default font in the Office 2007, 2010, and 2013 suites.
==Upside-down interrobang <span class="anchor" id="Inverted interrobang"></span> ==<!-- courtesy comment per WP:RSECT: [Inverted question and exclamation marks#Mixtures of question marks and exclamation points]] links here. -->
An upside-down interrobang (⸘), combining ¿ and ¡, suitable for starting phrases in Spanish, Galician, and Asturian—which use inverted question and exclamation marks—is called an "inverted interrobang" or, rarely, a gnaborretni (interrobang spelled backwards). In current practice, interrobang-like emphatic ambiguity in Hispanic languages is usually achieved by including both sets of punctuation marks, one inside the other: (¿¡De verdad!? or ¡¿De verdad?! [Really!?]). Older usage, still official but not widespread, recommended mixing the punctuation marks: ¡Verdad? or ¿Verdad!
Codepoint
The symbol is encoded in Unicode's General Punctuation block at codepoint .
Unicode encodes these variants:
- with an emoji variation selector
Examples of use
- The State Library of New South Wales, in Australia, uses an interrobang as its logo, as did the educational publishing company Pearson, which thus intends to convey "the excitement and fun of learning".
- The logo of the National Endowment for the Humanities incorporates eight exclamation marks and eight question marks; although their main strokes are separate, they all share the same dot, as in some variants of interrobangs.
- Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook used an interrobang in the 2012 United States Seventh Circuit opinion Robert F. Booth Trust v. Crowley.
- In chess, an interrobang is used to represent a dubious move, one that is questionable but possibly has merits. (See also the evaluation symbols ?! (dubious move) and !? (interesting move).)
See also
- Percontation point (⸮)
- Inverted question and exclamation marks (¿¡)