The exclamation mark, also sometimes called the exclamation point, especially in American English, is a punctuation mark that is usually used after an insertion or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or a high volume (shout), or to emphasize. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence, for example: “Be careful!” Similarly, a warning exclamation mark is often found in warning signs (with nothing before or after).

Other uses include:

In mathematics it means factorial operation.

Several computer languages ​​are used! at the beginning of an expression to denote a logical negation. E.g! A means “logical denial of A”, also called “not A”. This usage has spread in common language (for example, “! Indices” means inexplicable or meaningless).

History

Graphically, the exclamation mark is represented by variations on a breakpoint with a vertical line above.

A theory of its origin presupposes from a Latin exclamation of joy, namely io, analogous to “hurray”; it is believed that modern graphic representation has its origins in the Middle Ages; medieval copyists wrote the Latin word io at the end of the sentence to show an expression of joy. Over time I came across one; that it first became smaller and (with time) a dot.

The exclamation mark was first introduced in the English printing in the 15th century to emphasize and was called the “sign of admiration or exclamation” or “note of admiration” until the middle of the seventeenth century; “Admiration” refers to the meaning of this Latin word for astonishment.

Many typewriters before the computer had no exclamation marks. Instead, the user typed a full stop, then backspaced and wrote an apostrophe. Such typewriters often did not have the “1” key (the user typed “L” in lower case). Therefore, the exclamation mark is usually shift + 1, because both were added at the same time.

Now obsolete, the name econem was documented in the early twentieth century.

In the 1950s, secretarial dictation and typing guides in America referred to the mark as an “bang,” perhaps from the comics where! appears in dialog balloons to represent a firearm, although the pseudonym may have changed from letterpress printing. This use of bang is behind the names of interrobang, a non-traditional typographic symbol, and shebang, a feature of Unix computer systems.

In the world of printing, an exclamation mark can be called screaming, panting, pushing or astonishing.

In the culture of hackers, the exclamation mark is called “bang”, “shriek” or, in British slang, known as the Commonwealth Hackish, “pling”. For example, the password reported in the phrase “Your password is em-nought-pee-aitch-pling-en-three” is m0ph!n3.

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