Section sign

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The section sign (§, Unicode U+00A7, HTML entity §), also called the "section symbol" or "squiggly," is a typographical character used mainly to refer to a particular section of a document, such as a legal code. It is frequently used along with the pilcrow (¶), or paragraph sign. When duplicated, as §§, it is read as the plural "sections" (§§ 13–21), much as "pp." (pages) is the plural of "p." (page). For an effect comparable to the contemporary use of bold type, early scribes would double stroke letters, hence the sign was developed from a double stroked letter S.

Like the dagger (†) and double dagger (‡), it is also sometimes used to link to a footnote where the asterisk (*) is already in use on a given page; however, these usages are declining in favor of numbered footnotes, usually linked by a superscripted and/or square bracketed number.

Usage

Polish police use the section sign on a badge indicating specialty in criminal investigation.^{[citation needed]}

In legal documents, the section sign is often used to designate a section of legal code, such as in the United States Code and the code of many European countries; in this usage, it is typically read "paragraph" rather than "section".

In science and mathematics, it has several uses. Many 19th century science and mathematics textbooks use the section symbol to refer a reader to another section. Some examples are the Treatise on Natural Philosophy by Sir William Thompson and Peter Guthrie Tait and College Geometry by Nathan Altshiller-Court. The symbol can also be used to represent an animal type specimen.

In computer gaming, the section sign is a popular denotation for a unit of currency. Maxis Software uses it to represent the Simoleon in many of its SimNation games, as well as the Sporebuck in Spore. The IRC text-based game All-Out-War uses the symbol in the same way. Games have also used the symbol as a replacement for the letter S, such as in the titles War§ow and Legacy of Kain: §oul Reaver.

In some online communities, such as the forums on Craigslist, a section sign in the subject of a forum post indicates that the subject line comprises the entirety of the post (i.e., the body is empty).

In art, John Cook uses the symbol as a decoration or design element in many of his Sev Wide Web comics.

The UK horse racing form publication Timeform use the sign to denote an unreliable horse; as few people know the name of the sign, it is called the "Timeform Squiggle". A very unreliable horse is given a double squiggle—the ultimate black mark a horse can obtain.

The sign is integral to the design typeface for the "Museums Sheffield", the trading name of Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, which manages four museums for the city of Sheffield, England.^[1]

Typing the section sign

• Mac OS U.S. Keyboard layout: Option + 6. U.S. Extended Keyboard layout: Option + 5.
• Mac OS CSA (Canadian French) Keyboard layout: Option + Shift + S.
• Mac OS U.K. Keyboard layout: § key.
• X Window System, with a Compose Key: Compose + s + o, or Compose + ! + s
• TeX: \S
• Vim, in insert mode: Ctrl + K, SE; Ctrl + V, 167
• Emacs: C-x 8 S
• Windows Alt code: Alt + 0167; Alt + 21; Alt + 333333; Alt + 789; (on numeric keypad)
• US-International keyboard layout: AltGr + Shift + S

References

Look up section sign in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.