virgula

See also: vírgula and virgulă

English

An image of a virga or virgula, displaying its stem

Etymology

From Latin virgula (“twig; wand; scratch comma”), from virga (“branch; rod”) + -ulus (“-ule: forming diminutives”). As a dowsing rod, via virgula divina or divinatoria. Doublet of virgule.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvəːɡjʊlə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvəɹɡjʊlə/

Noun

virgula (plural virgulas or virgulae)

1. (zoology) A small, thin, straight growth, particularly:
   1. (obsolete) The spines of a ray.
   2. (obsolete) The sicula of a graptolite.
2. (obsolete) A divining or dowsing rod.
3. (rare) Any small rod.
4. (typography, rare) Synonym of virgule: a punctuation mark.
   • 1728, Ephraim Chambers, “Point”, in Cyclopædia:

     A Point with a Virgula, call'd a Semicolon.

   • 1934, Robert C. Priebsch et al., chapter X, in The German Language, volume II, page 380:

     The full stop or, instead, a virgula, i.e. a short slanting strike (/) is used... to mark the end of a sentence or of a portion of a sentence followed by a pause.

5. (music, obsolete) Synonym of stem: the tail of a note.
6. (music, historical, obsolete) Synonym of virga: one of the neumes of medieval musical notation.

Synonyms

• (small rod): See Thesaurus:stick

Related terms

• virgule

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "virgula, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1917.

French

Pronunciation

• Homophones: virgulas, virgulât

Verb

virgula

1. third-person singular past historic of virguler

Latin

Etymology

From virga (“twig, branch”) +‎ -ula. As a typographic mark, from its resemblance and size.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯ir.ɡu.la/, [ˈu̯ɪrɡʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvir.ɡu.la/, [ˈvirɡulä]

Noun

virgula f (genitive virgulae); first declension

1. a small rod, stick, wand, or staff
2. (Medieval Latin, typography) the slash mark ⟨/⟩, particularly (historical or obsolete) in its medieval use as a scratch comma.
3. tender shoot, tendril

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	virgula	virgulae
Genitive	virgulae	virgulārum
Dative	virgulae	virgulīs
Accusative	virgulam	virgulās
Ablative	virgulā	virgulīs
Vocative	virgula	virgulae

Derived terms

• virgella
• virgultum

Descendants

• Italian: vergola
• Venetian: vérgoła

Borrowings:

• → Catalan: vírgula
• → German: Virgel
• → Italian: virgola
  • → Piedmontese: vìrgola
  • → Sicilian: vìrgula
• → Middle French: virgule
  • French: virgule
  • → English: virgule
  • → Romanian: virgulă
    • → Turkish: virgül
• → Portuguese: vírgula
• → Spanish: vírgula

References

• “virgula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “virgula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• virgula in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)