Tilde

Punctuation and accent mark (~, ◌̃)The tilde (, also ) is a grapheme⟨˜⟩ or ⟨~⟩ with a number of uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanishtilde, which, in turn, came from the Latintitulus, meaning 'title' or 'superscription'. Its primary use internationally is as a diacritic in combination with a base letter. Its freestanding form, most common in English, is used in modern texts mainly to indicate approximation. HistoryUse by medieval scribesThe tilde was originally one of a variety of marks written over an omitted letter or several letters as a scribal abbreviation (a "mark of contraction"). Thus, the commonly used words Anno Domini were frequently abbreviated to A Dñi, with an elevated terminal with a contraction mark placed over the "n", such a mark could denote the omission of one letter or several letters. This saved on the expense of the scribe's labor and the cost of vellum and ink. Medieval European charters written in Latin are largely made up of such abbreviated words with contraction marks and other abbreviations; only uncommon words were given in full. The text of the Domesday Book of 1086, relating for example, to the manor of Molland i