SYM·0090 · Obelos
Dagger
spurious, then dead
- Unicode
- U+2020 dagger · double dagger U+2021
- Meaning
- The second footnote mark; and, before a name, that the person is dead.
- History
- From obelos, a spit or a pointed spear — the Alexandrian mark for a line the editor believed did not belong. It kept the sense of excision as it moved into the footnote apparatus, and then acquired its funerary use in genealogy and reference writing, where it stands beside a name in place of the word.
- Variants
- Latin cross form or true dagger form, depending on typeface; the double dagger for the third note.
- Related
- * Asterisk; ☠ the other mark that took on death as a second job.
- Appears
- Footnotes, critical editions, genealogies, obituaries, and species listed as extinct.
- Evolution
- “This line is not genuine” → footnote → “this person is not living”.
Sources · 3
- documented The obelos among the Alexandrian critical signs.
- traditional The dagger before a name to mark the deceased. Long-standing practice in genealogy and reference publishing, and not fixed by any style authority the Institute could name.
- documented The Unicode Standard, U+2020 DAGGER.