The interrobang (), also known as the interabang (often represented by any of ?!, !?, ?!? or !?!), is an unconventional punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark, or interrogative point, and the exclamation mark, or exclamation point, known in the jargon of printers and programmers as a "bang". The

glyph A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...

is a ligature of these two marks and was first proposed in 1962 by Martin K. Speckter.

Application

A sentence ending with an interrobang asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement, disbelief or confusion in the form of a question, or asks a

rhetorical question A rhetorical question is one for which the questioner does not expect a direct answer: in many cases it may be intended to start a discourse, or as a means of displaying or emphasize the speaker's or author's opinion on a topic. A common example ...

. For example: * You call that a knife‽ * Are you ''out of your mind''‽ * What are those‽ Writers using informal language may use several alternating question marks and exclamation marks for even more emphasis; however, this is regarded as poor style in formal writing.

History

Historically, writers have used multiple punctuation marks to end a sentence expressing surprise and question.

Invention

American Martin K. Speckter (1915 – February 14, 1988) conceptualized the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if

copywriters Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or ...

conveyed surprised

s using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine ''TYPEtalks''. Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included ''exclamaquest'', ''QuizDing'', ''rhet'', and ''exclarotive'', but he settled on ''interrobang''. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: ''interrogatio'' is Latin for "

" or " cross-examination"; ''bang'' is printers' slang for the exclamation mark. Graphic treatments for the new mark were also submitted in response to the article.

Early interest

In 1965, Richard Isbell created the Americana typeface for American Type Founders and included the interrobang as one of the characters. In 1968, an interrobang key was available on some Remington typewriters. In the 1970s, replacement interrobang keycaps and typefaces were available for some Smith-Corona typewriters. The interrobang was in vogue for much of the 1960s; the word ''interrobang'' appeared in some

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...

, and the mark was used in magazine and newspaper articles.

Continued support

Most fonts do not include the interrobang, but it has not disappeared. Lucida Grande, the default font for many UI elements of legacy versions of Apple's

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

operating system, includes the interrobang, and Microsoft provides several versions of the interrobang in the

Wingdings 2 Wingdings is a series of dingbat fonts that render letters as a variety of symbols. They were originally developed in 1990 by Microsoft by combining glyphs from Lucida Icons, Arrows, and Stars licensed from Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes. Cert ...

character set (on the right

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

and tilde keys on US keyboard layouts), included with Microsoft Office. It was accepted into Unicode and is included in several fonts, including

Lucida Sans Unicode In digital typography, Lucida Sans Unicode OpenType font from the design studio of Bigelow & HolmesAll Bigelow & Holmes Lucida typefaces are distributed by the designers througThe Lucida Fonts Storeand a subset of Lucida fonts is distributed bAsc ...

, Arial Unicode MS, and

Calibri Calibri () is a digital sans-serif typeface family in the humanist or modern style. It was designed by Luc(as) de Groot in 2002–2004 and released to the general public in 2007, with Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista. In Office 2007, it ...

, the default font in the Office 2007,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

suites.

Inverted interrobang

A reverse and upside-down interrobang (combining ¿ and ¡, Unicode character: ⸘), suitable for starting phrases in Spanish, Galician and Asturian—which use inverted question and exclamation marks—is called an "inverted interrobang" or a ''gnaborretni'' (''interrobang'' spelled backwards), but the latter is rarely used. In current practice, interrobang-like emphatic ambiguity in Hispanic languages is usually achieved by including both sets of punctuation marks one inside the other (''¿¡De verdad!?'' or ''¡¿De verdad?!'' 'Really!?''. Older usage, still official but not widespread, recommended mixing the punctuation marks: ''¡Verdad?'' or ''¿Verdad!''

Entering and display

Few modern typefaces or fonts include a

for the interrobang character. The standard interrobang is at Unicode code point . The inverted interrobang is at Unicode code point . Everson, Michael
Proposal to add INVERTED INTERROBANG to the UCS
, April 1, 2005 Single-character versions of the double-glyph versions are also available at code points and . On a Linux system supporting the

Compose key A compose key (sometimes called multi key) is a key on a computer keyboard that indicates that the following (usually 2 or more) keystrokes trigger the insertion of an alternate character, typically a precomposed character or a symbol. For insta ...

, an interrobang can be produced by ; reversing the order () creates the inverted interrobang. On macOS, it is found on the Character Palette, obtained by pressing the key combination . The interrobang can be inserted in HTML with . The interrobang can be displayed in LaTeX by using the package textcomp and the command . The inverted interrobang is the command .

Examples of use

The

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

, in Australia, uses an interrobang as its logo, as does the educational publishing company Pearson, which thus intends to convey "the excitement and fun of learning". Chief Judge

Frank H. Easterbrook Frank Hoover Easterbrook (born September 3, 1948) is an American lawyer, jurist, and legal scholar who has served as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since 1985. He was the Seventh Circuit's chief ...

used an interrobang in the 2012 United States Seventh Circuit opinion ''Robert F. Booth Trust v. Crowley''.

Australian Federal Court The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

Justice Michael Wigney used an interrobang in the first paragraph of his 2018 judgment in Faruqi v Latham

018 018 may refer to *Air Canada Flight 018, an airline flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada, illegally boarded by a Chinese man wearing a disguise in 2010 *Area code 018, a telephone area code in Uppsala, Sweden *BMW 018, an experimental turboje ...

FCA 1328 (defamation proceedings between former Federal Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, and political campaigner and writer, Osman Faruqi). In chess, an interrobang is used to represent a dubious move, one which is questionable but possibly has merits. (See also the evaluation symbols ?! (dubious move) and !? (interesting move).)

References

External links

The Interrobang: A twentieth-century punctuation mark

National Punctuation Day Reignites: Interrobang Passion

99 Percent Invisible podcast episode and article about the interrobang
{{navbox punctuation Typographical symbols Punctuation Symbols introduced in 1962