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#171864 12/04/07 12:01 AM
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Many years ago, I ran across a word for a decorative symbol publishers sometimes use to separate sections of text within a chapter. For the life of me, I can't recall it and it still nags me from time to time.
Can anyone help? Thanks.


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Dingbat?

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I asked a friend who used to be a printer, and he suggested fleuron, but that seems to be a flower-shaped dingbat (aka flower, floret) that is used to separate text on a title page or used to make lines. Some books use an asterisk, an asterism (three asterisks in a triangular formation), or empty squares to set off text within a chapter after a change of time, place, or theme.


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But not for symbols is the process so named. The symbols already have names. The act of the separating is called subordination as in the "sub-ordering" of sections and paragraphs.

If not pray tell me the look of this separating symbol.

Last edited by themilum; 12/07/07 10:00 PM.
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Bill, if you ever get back here--I just Googled "list of publishing terms" (without the quotes) and got quite a selection. I only looked at the first one, which did not have a word fitting your def., BUT--at the end it did have a person to contact for further questions. Good luck!

Jackie #172350 12/30/07 11:10 PM
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Thanks, all. I'm sorry I didn't respond to your efforts but completely forgot that I made the posting. None of your suggestions seem to square with my memory but your idea to check the list of publishing terms on Google is a good one, Jackie.


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Pi characters (also known as special sorts, and in the U.K., peculiars) include symbols, reference marks, logos, mathematical and monetary symbols, and decorative elements... like the examples cited: pilcrow, section sign, fleuron and asterisk. (Zapf) Dingbat is a pi font consisting of symbols.

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ironmite #173532 02/13/08 07:37 PM
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there is a word to decribe being unable to recall the word one wants to use. i can't remember the word, of course! anyone?

melissa #173534 02/13/08 07:48 PM
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one such word is lethologica.

-joe (others are on the tip of my tongue) friday

melissa #173535 02/13/08 08:02 PM
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What ever name you give it. It's a symptom of the start of the old fashioned great forgetfulness. There's a word for that too. But I forgot.

melissa #173774 02/21/08 12:11 AM
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Originally Posted By: melissa
there is a word to decribe being unable to recall the word one wants to use. i can't remember the word, of course! anyone?


It's something like dyspraxia (but that's not it). Is it dysnomia perhaps? Or dyslogia?

Last edited by The Pook; 02/21/08 12:11 AM.
The Pook #173806 02/21/08 05:49 AM
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dysnomia sounds right

Zed #173807 02/21/08 06:13 AM
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let's not develop loganamnosis about this. aphasia, anomia, dysnomia, and tip-of-the-tongue syndrome are all clinical terms. as Cecil, of The Straight Dope discovered, the layman's term *is lethologica.

-joe (straight and dopey) friday

tsuwm #173809 02/21/08 06:18 AM
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I'll bet most laymen don't know that it's their term.

Zed #173811 02/21/08 11:02 AM
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It's one of those words you forget really easily.

Faldage #173822 02/21/08 01:47 PM
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Originally Posted By: Faldage
It's one of those words you forget really easily.


No, it's one of those words you never knew in the first place!

The Pook #173863 02/22/08 01:03 AM
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Swoosh

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