View source for Pilcrow

{{Short description|Symbol ¶ used to identify a new paragraph}}
{{about|the typographical mark|the novel|Pilcrow (novel){{!}}''Pilcrow'' (novel)}}
{{redirect|Paragraph mark|the symbol §, sometimes used as a paragraph mark|Section sign}}
{{distinguish|Paragraph separator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox symbol
|mark=¶
|unicode= {{unichar|00B6|html=}}
|different from= {{unichar|00A7|nlink=}}
|see also = {{plainlist|
*{{unichar|204B}}
*{{unichar|2761}}
*{{unichar|2e3f}}
*{{unichar|2E4D}}
}}
}}
[[File:Pilcrow sign in fonts Helvetica Arial Consolas Garamond Baskerville Palatino Gentium.svg |thumb |upright=1.5|Pilcrow in typefaces: [[Neue Helvetica]], [[Arial]], [[Consolas]], Adobe [[Garamond (typeface)|Garamond]] Pro, [[Baskerville (typeface)|Baskerville]] Old Face, [[Palatino Linotype]], and [[Gentium]]]]
{{Orthography notation}}

In [[typography]], the '''pilcrow''' ('''¶''') is a [[glyph]] used to identify a [[paragraph]]. In editorial production the ''pilcrow'' typographic character is also known as the '''paragraph mark''', the '''paragraph sign''', the '''paragraph symbol''', the '''paraph''', and the '''blind P'''.<ref name="style">{{Cite book|title=Style manual|publisher=Australian government publishing service|year=1978|edition=3|location=Canberra|chapter=Notes, references and bibliographies: Notes}}</ref>

In writing and editorial practice, authors and editors use the pilcrow glyph to indicate the start of separate [[paragraphs]], and to identify a new paragraph within a long block of text without paragraph indentions, as in the book ''An Essay on Typography'' (1931), by [[Eric Gill]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Eric Gill |url=https://monoskop.org/images/8/8d/Gill_Eric_An_Essay_on_Typography.pdf |title=An Essay on Typography |date=2013 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780141393568 |location=London |author-link=Eric Gill |orig-year=1931}}</ref> In the [[Middle Ages]], the practice of [[rubrication]] (type in red-ink) used a red pilcrow to indicate the beginning of a different [[train of thought]] within the author's narrative without paragraphs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/design/2013/07/the-origin-of-the-pilcrow-aka-the-strange-paragraph-symbol/ |title=The Origin of the Pilcrow, aka the Strange Paragraph Symbol |work=Design Decoded (a Smithsonian blog) |date=10 July 2013 |last=Stamp |first=Jimmy |access-date=10 July 2013 |archive-date=14 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130714110813/http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/design/2013/07/the-origin-of-the-pilcrow-aka-the-strange-paragraph-symbol |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The letterform of the pilcrow resembles a minuscule {{char|q}} or a mirrored majuscule {{char|P}}, with a usually-doubled backbone reaching from the [[descender]] to the [[Ascender (typography)|ascender]] height.
The [[Typeface anatomy|bowl]] on the left side can be filled or empty, and occasionally extends far enough downward that the character resembles a mirrored {{char|D}}. The backbone is usually straight, but in some fonts curves toward the bowl.

== Origin and name ==
The English word ''pilcrow'' derives from the {{langx|grc|παράγραφος}} &lsqb;[[paragraphos|{{Transliteration|grc|parágraphos}}]]&rsqb;, "written in the side" or "written in the margin". In Old French, ''parágraphos'' became the word {{lang|fro|paragraphe}} and later {{lang|fro|pelagraphe}}. The earliest English language reference to the modern pilcrow is in 1440, with the Middle English word {{lang|enm|pylcrafte}}.<ref>{{cite book | author = Keith Houston | chapter = The Pilcrow | title = Shady characters : ampersands, interrobangs and other typographical curiosities | date = 29 January 2015 | page=16 | isbn= 9780718193881 | location = London | publisher = Penguin}}</ref>

=== Use in Ancient Greek ===
[[File:GNM3227a 6r.jpg|thumb|Three short paragraphs on making gunpowder in the manuscript [[GNM 3227a]] (Germany, c. 1400); the first paragraph is marked with an early form of the pilcrow sign, the two following paragraphs are introduced with ''litterae notabiliores'' (enlarged letters).]]
[[File:Villanova-rudimenta-grammaticæ-Valencia-1500.jpg|thumb|Pilcrow signs in an excerpt from a page of ''Villanova, Rudimenta Grammaticæ'', printed by Spindeler in 1500 in Valencia.<ref name=Updike>{{cite book |last=Updike |first=Daniel Berkeley |title=Printing types, their history, forms and use, a study in survivals by Daniel Berkeley Updike |date=1922 |volume= I |page= 108| url=https://archive.org/details/printingtypesthe01updi/page/108/mode/2up}}</ref>]]
[[Image:Pilcrow-history.svg|thumb|Possible development from ''capitulum'' to modern paragraph symbol.<ref name=General />]]

The first way to divide sentences into groups in Ancient Greek was the original {{lang|grc|παράγραφος}} [{{Transliteration|grc|parágraphos}}], which was a horizontal line in the margin to the left of the main text.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyenglishp00lewigoog |title=The History of the English Paragraph |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1894 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyenglishp00lewigoog/page/n13 9] |author=Edwin Herbert Lewis}}</ref> As the {{lang|grc|paragraphos}} became more popular, the horizontal line eventually changed into the Greek letter [[gamma]] ({{angbr|Γ}}, {{angbr|γ}}) and later into {{lang|la|[[Initial|litterae notabiliores]]}}, which were enlarged letters at the beginning of a paragraph.<ref>{{cite book|page =10 | author=M. B. Parkes |chapter = Introduction: Glossary of Technical Terms | title=Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West  | location = Berkeley | publisher= University of California Press| date =1993 | isbn= 9780520079410}}</ref>

=== Use in Latin ===
The above notation soon changed to the letter {{angbr|K}}, an abbreviation for the Latin word {{lang|la|[[wikt:caput|caput]]}}, which translates as "head", i.e. it marks the head of a new thesis.<ref>{{cite book|page =12 | author=M. B. Parkes |chapter = 1. Antiquity: Aids for Inexperienced Readers and the Prehistory of Punctuation | title=Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West  | location = Berkeley | publisher= University of California Press| date =1993 | isbn= 9780520079410}}</ref> Eventually, to mark a new section, the Latin word {{lang|la|[[wikt:capitulum|capitulum]]}}, which translates as "little head", was used, and the letter {{angbr|C}} came to mark a new section, or chapter,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.typography.com/blog/pilcrow-capitulum |title=Pilcrow & Capitulum |last= Hoefler |first=Jonathan |date= 12 Mar 2008|website=Typography.com |publisher=Hoefler&Co |access-date=4 November 2022 |quote=It's tempting to recognize the symbol as a "P for paragraph," though the resemblance is incidental: in its original form, the mark was an open C crossed by a vertical line or two, a scribal abbreviation for capitulum, the Latin word for chapter.}}</ref> in 300 BC.<ref>{{cite book|author = David Sacks | chapter= K and its Kompetitors | title=The Alphabet: Unravelling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z | location = London |publisher = Hutchinson | date=2003| page= 206 |isbn= 9780091795061}}</ref>

=== Use in Middle Ages ===
In the 1100s, {{angbr|C}} had completely replaced {{angbr|K}} as the symbol for a new chapter.<ref name=General>{{cite book|page =43 | author=M. B. Parkes |chapter = The Development of the General Repertory of Punctuation | title=Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West  | location = Berkeley | publisher= University of California Press| date =1993 | isbn= 9780520079410}}</ref> [[Rubrication|Rubricators]] eventually added one or two [[vertical bar]]s to the {{char|C}} to stylize it (as <big>{{char|⸿}}</big>); the "[[bowl (typography)|bowl]]" of the symbol was filled in with dark ink and eventually looked like the modern pilcrow, <big>{{char|¶}}</big>.<ref name=General />

Scribes would often leave space before paragraphs to allow rubricators to add a hand-drawn pilcrow in contrasting ink. With the introduction of the printing press from the late medieval period on, space before paragraphs was still left for rubricators to complete by hand. If it was not practical to complete the rubrication, books might be sold with the spaces before the paragraphs left blank, thus creating the typographical practice of [[Indentation (typesetting)|indentation]].<ref>{{cite book | first=Jan |last=Tschichold |editor-first= Robert |editor-last=Bringhurst |translator = Hajo Hadeler | chapter=Why the Beginnings of Paragraphs Must Be Indented |title=Ausgewählte Aufsätze über Fragen der Gestalt des Buches und der Typographie | orig-date=1975 |trans-title= The form of the book : essays on the morality of good design | location =London |publisher= Lund Humphries |date= 1991 |isbn= 9780853316237 |oclc=220984255| pages = 105–109}}</ref>

== Modern use ==
[[File:Doves Press Bible.jpg|thumb|upright 0.75|Opening page of Genesis from the Doves Bible ([[Doves Press]], 1902): pilcrow used as a verse marker]]

The pilcrow remains in use in modern documents in the following ways:

* In [[legal writing]], it is often used whenever one [[Legal citation|cites]] a specific paragraph within [[pleadings]], [[law review]] articles, [[statute]]s, or other legal documents and materials. It is also used to indicate a paragraph break within quoted text.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jessen |first1=Edward W. |title=California Style Manual: A Handbook of Legal Style for California Courts and Lawyers |date=2000 |publisher=Supreme Court of California |location=San Francisco |page=131 |edition=4 |url=https://sdap.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/Style-Manual.pdf#page=157}}</ref>
* In academic writing, it is sometimes{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} used as an in-text referencing tool to make reference to a specific paragraph from a document that does not contain page numbers, allowing the reader to find where that particular idea or statistic was sourced. The pilcrow sign followed by a number indicates the paragraph number from the top of the page. It is rarely used when citing books or journal articles.
* In [[web publishing]] style guides, a pilcrow may be used to indicate an [[Hyperlink#Anchor|anchor link]].<ref>{{Cite IETF |rfc=RFC7992 |url=https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7992#section-5.2 |title = HTML Format for RFCs {{!}} §5.2 Pilcrows |publisher=[[Internet Architecture Board]] |date = December 2016 |last1 = Hildebrand|first1 = Joe |last2 = Hoffman|first2 = Paul E. |editor-first1 = J |editor-last1 = Hildebrand |doi = 10.17487/RFC7992 }}</ref>
* In [[proofreading]], it indicates an instruction that one paragraph should be split into two or more separate paragraphs. The proofreader inserts the pilcrow at the point where a new paragraph should begin.
* In some [[high-church]] [[Anglican]] and [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] churches, it is used in the printed order of service to indicate that instructions follow; these indicate when the [[Parish church|congregation]] should stand, sit, and kneel, who participates in various portions of the service, and similar information. [[King's College, Cambridge]] uses this convention in the service booklet for the [[Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols]]. This is analogous to the writing of these instructions in red in some rubrication conventions.

The pilcrow is also often used in [[word processing]] and [[desktop publishing]] software:

* As the [[toolbar]] [[icon (computing)|icon]] used to toggle the display of formatting marks, such as tabs and paragraph breaks.<ref>{{citation |work=Word Help |title=Show or hide tab marks in Word |quote=Turn the display of formatting marks on or off |publisher=Microsoft}} accessed=13 June 2023</ref>
* As the symbol for a paragraph break, shown when display is requested.

The pilcrow may indicate a [[footnote]] in a convention that uses a set of distinct typographic symbols in turn to distinguish between footnotes on a given page; it is the sixth in a series of [[footnote]] symbols beginning with the [[asterisk]].<ref name = style /> (The modern convention is to use numbers or letters in superscript form.)

== Encoding ==
The pilcrow [[Character (computing)|character]] was encoded in the 1984 [[Multinational Character Set]] ([[Digital Equipment Corporation]]'s  extension to [[ASCII]]) at 0xB6 (decimal 182), subsequently adopted by [[ISO/IEC 8859-1]] ("ISO Latin-1", 1987) at the same [[code point]], and thence by [[Unicode]] as {{unichar|00B6|PILCROW SIGN}}. In addition, Unicode also defines {{unichar|204B|reversed pilcrow sign}}, {{unichar|2761|curved stem paragraph sign ornament}}, and {{unichar|2e3f|capitulum}}. The capitulum character is obsolete, being replaced by pilcrow, but is included in Unicode for backward compatibility and historic studies.

The pilcrow symbol was included in the [[default hardware codepage]] [[codepage 437|437]] of [[IBM PC]]s (and all other 8-bit [[OEM codepage]]s based on this) at code point 20 (0x14), which is an [[ASCII]] [[control character]].

=== Keyboard entry ===
* [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]]: {{keypress|[[Alt code|Alt]]|0}}{{keypress|1|8|2|chain=}} or {{keypress|Alt|2}}{{keypress|0}} (both on the numeric keypad)<ref>{{cite web |title=Windows Alt Key Codes |url=http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html#punc |year=2010 |publisher=Penn State University |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100614052955/http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html#punc |archive-date=14 June 2010 }}</ref> 
** Microsoft [[US international keyboard]] layout: {{key press|[[AltGr key|AltGr]]|;}}
* [[Classic Mac OS]] and [[macOS]]: {{key press|[[Option key|Opt]]|7}}
* [[Linux]] and [[ChromeOS]]: {{keypress|Ctrl|Shift|U}}{{keypress|B|6|chain=}} 
** Linux with [[compose key]]: {{key press|Compose}}{{keypress|Shift|P}}{{keypress|Shift|P}}
** ChromeOS with [[Keyboard layout#UK-International|UK-International keyboard layout]]: {{key press|[[AltGr key|AltGr]]|r}}
* [[HTML]]: {{code|&para;}} (introduced in [[HTML 3.2]] (1997)), or {{code|&#182;}}
* [[Vim (text editor)|Vim]], in insert mode: {{key press|[[Ctrl key|Ctrl]]|K}} {{key press|P}}{{key press|I}}     (upper-case i, not a digit 1 or a lower-case letter L)
* [[TeX]]: <code>\P</code>
* [[LaTeX]]: <code>\P</code> or <code>\textpilcrow</code>
* [[Android (operating system)|Android]] phones ([[Gboard]]): {{keypress|?123}}{{keypress|1==/<}}{{keypress|1=¶}}
*Apple iPhones and iPads may require the user to set up a text replacement shortcut<ref>{{Cite web |title=Save keystrokes with text replacements on iPhone |url=https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-text-replacements-iph6d01d862/ios |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=Apple Support |language=en}}</ref> without installing custom keyboard software. Tools may be required to easily generate a pilcrow, or other special characters.<ref>{{cite web |title=iPad Writing Tool |url=http://idevicesworld.com/features/cymbol#pilcrow |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110620055218/http://idevicesworld.com/features/cymbol#pilcrow |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 June 2011 |year=2011 |publisher=iDevices World – Australia }}</ref>

== Paragraph signs in non-Latin writing systems ==
In [[Sanskrit]] and other [[Languages of India|Indian languages]], text blocks are commonly written in stanzas. Two vertical bars, [[॥]], called a "double ''daṇḍa''", are the functional equivalent of a pilcrow.<ref name=Ruppel>{{cite book
 | last = A.M.
 | first = Ruppel
 | title = The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | date = 2017
 | location = New York
 | pages = 33
 | language = English
 | isbn = 978-1107088283
}}</ref>

In [[Thai language|Thai]], the character [[๏]] marks the beginning of a stanza and [[ฯะ]] or [[๚ะ]] marks the end of a stanza.<ref name="Thai">{{cite web
| title = Thai
| publisher = Unicode
| year = 2009
| url = http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0E00.pdf
| access-date = 2010-08-04 }}</ref>

In [[Geʽez script#Punctuation|Amharic]], the characters [[፠]] and [[፨]] can mark a section/paragraph.

In China, the [[〇]], which has been used as a [[zero]] character since the 12th century, has been used to mark paragraphs in older Western-made books such as the [[Chinese Union Version]] of the Bible.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wiktionary|pilcrow}}

{{navbox punctuation}}

[[Category:Punctuation]]
[[Category:Typographical symbols]]