Of all the punctuation marks, the semicolon is far from the most popular. It's fallen in usage since it's heyday in the 1800s. Why was it so big then, and what changed? It might be that folks today aren't as familiar with how to use it. Mary Norris, former copy editor for The New Yorker and author of "Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen" helps to break down just how to use these super-charged commas correctly. Following is a transcript of the video.
Don't you hate it when you're writing and- ARG! You hit….This!
Yeah, I know, you know, we all know it's a semicolon. But when was the last time you even used it?
It certainly seems like we should be using it a lot. I mean look at it on your keyboard. VIP seating. Take that, dollar sign.
So, how should you even use a semicolon?
Think of your sentence as traffic on a road. A period breaks it into different segments, like a red light. A comma is like a green light, it may slow traffic down a little, but it's not going to change the speed dramatically, and a yellow light causes traffic to hesitate, for a moment, to give traffic a little bit of room to just breathe.
A semicolon can break a list-like sentence up into several smaller sections. They stay closer associated than separate sentences.
If two short sentences refer to the same subject, they can be joined up with a semicolon.
"... connect the first part of a sentence with another clause that's closely related to it, without using a conjunction."
But semicolons should never go before coordinating conjunctions like 'and,' 'but,' 'or,' 'so.' That's a comma's spot.
Where did this weird punctuation move come from? You can thank the Roman navy. Early Romans had a phrase "Hasten Slowly." When writing its phrase out, it was represented by an anchor above a dolphin.
In the 15th century, Venetian Printer Aldus Manutius stylized the ancient symbol and adopted it as his printer's mark. Only he was using it as an abbreviation. As the printing press spread literacy throughout the 15th century, punctuation marks became standardized among writing.
Playwright and poet Ben Jonson is credited as the first notable English writer to use the semicolon systematically in his work. He was known for relying heavily on quotes of earlier writers. Many among them were proteges and fans of Manutius' who happened to keep the Venetian's classic mark alive.
Semicolon use surged over the next 200 years. Then, the 20th century hit, and the semicolon started to disappear. What happened?
In a 1993 study for Applied Linguistics, Paul Bruthiaux studied punctuation marks in writing manuals from the 16th century through the 20th. Bruthiaux concluded that a shift from spoken to written words for communication appeared to be responsible for its rise. But a trend towards simplified sentences led to its downfall.
Another emerging technology may have hammered a nail into the semicolon's coffin: the telegraph. Punctuation marks cost just as much as a letter, so short lines were more profitable to send, especially across the Atlantic, when words could cost about $5 each.
Anti-semicolon sentiment became common in writers as well. Despite all that, semicolons have discovered new purposes in modern life.
Early emoticons gave it widespread usage.
Programming languages adopted the semicolon to indicate the end of a statement.
And if you've seen someone with a tattoo of a semicolon, it's taken on a new purpose for them.
Through Project Semicolon, the punctuation is a symbol for suicide survivors, who could have ended their lives, but instead chose not to end the sentence just yet.
So, despite its changing definition, this little punctuation mark isn't going anywhere soon.
Its prominent position on the keyboard is well deserved. There are people who rely on it every day for grammar, programming, or support.