Asterism (typography)

Typographic symbol of three asterisks

Asterism (typography)

In Unicode| U+2042 ⁂ ASTERISM
Different from
Different from| U+0B83 ஃ TAMIL SIGN VISARGA
U+2234 ∴ THEREFORE
U+2235 ∵ BECAUSE

In typography, an asterism, ⁂, is a typographic symbol consisting of three asterisks placed in a triangle, which is used for a variety of purposes. The name originates from the astronomical term for a group of stars.[1]

The asterism was originally used as a type of dinkus in typography, though increasingly rarely.[2] It can also be used to mean "untitled" or author or title withheld - as seen, for example, in some editions of Album for the Young by composer Robert Schumann (№ 21, 26, and 30).[3]

In meteorology, an asterism in a station model plot indicates moderate snowfall.[4][5]

## Dinkus

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Main article: Dinkus

Asterisms used as dinkuses in the James Joyce novel Ulysses, the "Wandering Rocks" chapter, from the 1922 edition.[6] The 1961 edition used a hollow white star (☆), and the 1984 edition used a row of three asterisks.

A dinkus is a typographical device to divide text, such as at section breaks. Its purpose is to "indicate minor breaks in text",[7] to call attention to a passage, or to separate sub-chapters in a book. An asterism used this way is thus a type of dinkus: nowadays this usage of the symbol is nearly obsolete.[2] More commonly used dinkuses are three dots or three asterisks in a horizontal row.[8][9]

## See also

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* Asterism (disambiguation) (other uses of the word)
* Dingbat – Typographic symbol class
* Ellipsis – Triple-dot punctuation mark
* Signature mark – Mark identifying a section in bookbinding

## References

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1. ^ From the Greek astēr (star) Alexander Humez, Nicholas D. Humez (2008). On the Dot: The Speck That Changed the World, p. 72 & 186n. ISBN 978-0-19-532499-0.
2. ^ a b Radim Peško, Louis Lüthi (2007). Dot Dot Dot 13, p. 193. Stuart Bailey, Peter Bilak, eds. ISBN 978-90-77620-07-6.
3. ^ Taruskin, Richard (2005). The Oxford history of western music, Volume 3, p. 311. ISBN 978-0-19-516979-9.
4. ^ Ahrens, C. Donald (2011). Essentials of meteorology: an invitation to the atmosphere (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. p. 461\. ISBN 9780840049339. OCLC 651905769.
5. ^ "Station Model Information for Weather Observations". National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
6. ^ Joyce, James (1922). Ulysses. London, Paris: Egoist Press, John Rodker. p. 240 - via Archive.org.
7. ^ Hudson, Robert (2010). The Christian Writer's Manual of Style. p. 396\. ISBN 978-0-310-86136-2.
8. ^ Lundmark, Torbjorn (2002). Quirky Qwerty: the story of the keyboard @ your fingertips. University of New South Wales. p. 120\. ISBN 9780868404363.
9. ^ David Crystal (2016). Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation. London Profile Books. ISBN 9781781253519.

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Common punctuation and other typographical symbols

* space
* , comma
* : colon
* ; semicolon
* ‐ hyphen
* ’ ' apostrophe
* ′ ″ ‴ prime
* . full stop

* & ampersand
* @ at sign
* ^ caret
* / slash
* \ backslash
* … ellipsis
* * asterisk
* ※ Reference mark
* ⁂ asterism
* • • • dinkus

* - hyphen-minus
* ‒ – — dash
* ⹀ ⸗ double hyphen

* ? question mark
* ! exclamation mark
* ‽ interrobang
* ¡ ¿ inverted ! and ?
* ⸮ irony punctuation

* # number sign
* № numero sign
* º ª ordinal indicator
* % percent sign
* ‰ per mille
* ‱ basis point
* ° degree symbol
* ⌀ diameter sign

* + − plus and minus signs
* × multiplication sign
* ÷ division sign
* ~ tilde
* ± plus–minus sign
* ∓ minus-plus sign
* √ radical symbol

* _ underscore
* ⁀ tie
* | ¦ ‖ vertical bar
* • bullet
* · interpunct

* © copyright symbol
* ℗ sound recording copyright
* ® registered trademark
* SM service mark symbol
* TM trademark symbol

* ‘ ’ “ ” ' ' " " quotation mark
* ‹ › « » guillemet
* ( ) [ ] { } ⟨ ⟩ bracket
* ” ditto mark

* † ‡ dagger
* ❧ fleuron (hedera, aldus)
* ☞ manicule
* ◊ ⌑ lozenge
* ¶ ⸿ pilcrow (paragraph mark)
* § section mark

* Version of this table as a sortable list

* Currency symbols
* Diacritics (accents)
* Logic symbols
* Math symbols
* Whitespace

* Chinese punctuation
* Hebrew punctuation
* Japanese punctuation
* Korean punctuation
* Vietnamese punctuation

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