From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Thu Dec 18 2003 - 10:53:37 EST
At 09:01 -0500 2003-12-18, John Cowan wrote:
>"Underscore" would suggest rather U+0332, the combining low line. As
>for "pilcrow", it's probably descended from a perversion of "paragraph",
>but nobody knows for sure.
The OED gives other forms for it:
15th-century pylcraft(e), pilecrafte; 16th-century pilcrowe;
17th-century pilkrow, pill-crow, peelcrow, pilgrow. Apparently for
pilled crow, cf. pilcord, pilgarlic. The application of the word,
with the form pylcraft, has suggested that it originated in a
perversion of PARAGRAPH, through pargrafte, *parcrafte, etc.: cf
quote c 1460 and 1617. But the history of the word is obscure, and
evidence is wanting.
-- Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com
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