The commercial minus sign is a
typographical
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line spacing, letter spac ...
and
mathematical
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
symbol used in commercial and financial documents in some
European languages, in specific contexts.
In some commercial and financial documents, especially in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
and
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
, the symbol was used to indicate subtraction or to denote a negative quantity. The
Unicode Consortium
The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California, U.S. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the in ...
has allocated the
code point
A code point, codepoint or code position is a particular position in a Table (database), table, where the position has been assigned a meaning. The table may be one dimensional (a column), two dimensional (like cells in a spreadsheet), three dime ...
U+2052 to identify this usage uniquely,
the exact form of the symbol displayed is typeface (font) dependent. The symbol is also used in the margins of letters to indicate an enclosure, where the upper point is sometimes replaced with the corresponding number.
The
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
Finno-Ugric transcription (FUT) or the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) is a phonetic transcription or notational system used predominantly for the transcription and reconstruction of Uralic languages. It was first published in 1901 by Eemil Nesto ...
uses commercial minus signs to denote borrowed forms of a sound.
In
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
, it is used as a symbol for a correct response (the
check mark
The check or check mark (American English), checkmark ( Philippine English), tickmark ( Indian English) or tick ( Australian, New Zealand and British English) is a mark (✓, ✔, etc.) used in many countries, including the English-speaking ...
indicates an ''incorrect'' response).
Typographic variant
In Germany, the form was historically an alternative to the formal glyph, since this could be conveniently typed on a typewriter. It also provides a convenient alternative means for typing on a modern keyboard, without needing to resort to
Unicode input.
In Japan, the triangle (either △ or ▲) is used as the commercial minus sign.
See also
*
Obelus
An obelus (plural: obeluses or obeli) is a term in codicology and latterly in typography that refers to a historical annotation mark which has resolved to three modern meanings:
* Division sign
* Dagger
* Commercial minus sign (limited g ...
the predecessor of this variant
*
*
*
**
Arabic percent sign (almost identical symbol except that the dots are squares rather than circles)
Notes
References
{{Reflist
Typographical symbols
Mathematical symbols
de:Minuszeichen