obelus

American  

[ob-uh-luhs] / ˈɒb ə ləs /

noun

• obeli
  plural

1. a mark (− or ÷) used in ancient manuscripts to point out spurious, corrupt, doubtful, or superfluous words or passages.

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obelus British  

/ ˈɒbɪləs /

noun

1. a mark (— or ÷) used in editions of ancient documents to indicate spurious words or passages

2. another name for dagger

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• obeli
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of obelus

1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin < Greek obelós spit, pointed pillar

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Explanation

In math, an obelus is a symbol that means "divided by," while in an ancient text it's an editorial mark on a line or word that is incorrect or doubtful. An obelus typically looks like this: ÷, a horizontal line with dots above and below. It's familiar to anyone who's done arithmetic problems such as 12÷3=X. The original obelus conveyed "remove or cut this" in a text, with just a line symbolizing a dart or dagger. The two dots appeared later, as did a dagger-shaped version that's often added beside a person's name to mean "deceased." The word itself has a Greek root meaning "sharpened stick."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

obelus obeli

One way is to interpret the obelus, or ÷ symbol, as dividing everything to the left of it by to the right of it.

From Slate ● Mar. 12, 2013

To obtain a thoroughly correct text, he marked with an obelus the lines he considered spurious; other signs were used by him to indicate notes, varieties of reading, repetitions and interpolations.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 5 "Arculf" to "Armour, Philip" by Various

He introduced critical signs—except the obelus; punctuation prosodiacal, and accentual marks were probably already in use.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 5 "Arculf" to "Armour, Philip" by Various

In his peculiar notation, Asides are marked by inverted commas, and obvious stage business is indicated by an obelus.

From The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] Introduction and Publisher's Advertising by William George Clark

The purpose of the doubly pointed obelus is plainly indicated here, as it accompanies two of these catchwords.

From A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger A Study of Six Leaves of an Uncial Manuscript Preserved in the Pierpont Morgan Library New York by E. A. (Elias Avery) Lowe

The Harkleian margin marks from ἄγγελος to ὕδωρ with an asterisk, the remainder of the verse with obeli.

From A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. by Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener

The object therefore of Moses' voyage to Alexandria was probably that he might add to the Armenian text the Sections of Ammonius, and also the asterisks and obeli of Origen's Hexaplaric copy128.

From A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. by Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener

It Harklean. represents in the main the text of the later Greek MSS., but it has important textual notes, and has adopted a system of asterisks and obeli from the Hexaplar LXX.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various

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