The period took its name from the Greek word περίοδος, periodos, meaning a division of a sentence or a thought, as we to-day speak of an orator’s eloquent periods.

The colon comes from the Greek κῶλον, kolon, meaning a limb.

The comma comes from the Greek κόμμα, komma, from κόπτειν, to cut.

The semicolon, of course, is the half colon.

The question mark was made by writing the first and last letters of the Latin word questio, a question, vertically,

The exclamation point was made by writing the letters of the Latin word Io, joy, vertically,

The punctuation marks now in use and treated of in this book are as follows:

,comma
;semicolon
:colon
.period
?interrogation
!exclamation
( )parentheses
[ ]brackets
’apostrophe
-hyphen
—dash
“ ”quotation marks