pilcrow

American  

[pil-kroh] / ˈpɪl kroʊ /

noun

1. the character ¶, used in editing and printing to indicate the beginning of a new paragraph; paragraph mark.

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Etymology

Origin of pilcrow

1400–50; apparently alteration (perhaps conformed to crow ¹ ) of late Middle English pylcraft ( e ), perhaps < Old French paragrafe, pelagraphe paragraph

Explanation

A pilcrow is a typographical character that looks like this: ¶. It's used to mark the beginning of a new paragraph. The pilcrow looks a bit like a backward-facing capital P, but it started out centuries ago as a capital C with a slash through it. It stood for the Latin word capitulum, meaning "little head" or "chapter." Back when paper was very expensive, scribes wasted no space by indenting or skipping a line at the start of a new paragraph. Instead, they used this symbol in the margin. Today, you'll see it if you toggle to the formatted view of a document on your computer. And professional editors use it to show authors where to start a new paragraph.

Example Sentences

Stone jotted down a pilcrow next to the line and began again.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2023

But while National Punctuation Day, Sept. 24, may be an occasion to pour one out for the pilcrow, that’s not the case for the period.

From Time • Sep. 24, 2016

The pilcrow: The character that looks like a fancy backward capital P is called the pilcrow; it's used to mark the break between paragraphs.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2014

The third type has a pilcrow ¶ but no break.

From The Education of Children by Sherry, Richard

The third type has a pilcrow ¶ but no line break.

From A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes by Hildebrandt, Herbert William