What Happened
Shakespeare and friends would call punctuation “distinctions,” according tradition, or “pointing,” because of the medieval practice of placing dots or points at different levels . The first occurrence “punctuation” happens in the French dialogue book Orthoepia Gallica from 1593 by translator and language teacher John Eliot, colloquial conversations in facing columns influenced Shakespeare’s witty repartee. Eliot challenges London French teachers to “find fault” with his “pricks, nicks, and tricks,” referring to his punctuation and rhetoric.
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