Editing Dagger (mark) (section)

==History==
[[File:Obelus variants.svg|thumb|Three variants of obelus glyphs]]
The dagger symbol originated from a variant of the [[obelus]], originally depicted by a plain line {{char|−}} or a line with one or two dots {{char|÷}}.<ref name="merriamw">{{cite book |title=Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-Webster |date=2003 |page=[https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersc00merr_6/page/855 855] |isbn=9780877798095 |url= https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersc00merr_6 |url-access=registration |quote=obelos}}</ref> It represented an iron roasting spit, a dart, or the sharp end of a [[javelin]],<ref name="ainsw">{{cite book |editor-first=William Harrison |editor-last=Ainsworth |title=The New Monthly Magazine |publisher=Chapman and Hall |volume=125 |date=1862 |page=1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PycaAQAAIAAJ&q=obelos&pg=PA1 |via=Google Books}}</ref> symbolizing the skewering or cutting out of dubious matter.<ref name="scanlin" /><ref name="enc" /><ref name="hamann" />

The obelus is believed to have been invented by the [[Homeric scholarship|Homeric scholar]] [[Zenodotus]] as one of a system of editorial symbols. They marked questionable or corrupt words or passages in manuscripts of the [[Homeric epics]].<ref name="Oxford" /><ref name="scanlin">{{cite book |first=Harold P. |last=Scanlin |editor-first=Alison |editor-last=Salvesen |title=Origen's Hexapla and Fragments: Papers Presented at the Rich Seminar on the Hexapla, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 25th July – 3rd August 1994 |series="Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism" series |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |date=1998 |page=439 |chapter=A New Edition of Origen's Hexapla: How It Might Be Done |isbn=9783161465758 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9xQDu27_HEIC&q=metobelos&pg=PA439}}</ref> The system was further refined by his student [[Aristophanes of Byzantium]], who first introduced the [[asterisk]] and used a symbol resembling a {{char|⊤}} for an obelus; and finally by Aristophanes' student, in turn, [[Aristarchus of Samothrace|Aristarchus]], from whom they earned the name of "[[Aristarchian symbols]]".<ref name="wegner">{{cite book |first=Paul D. |last=Wegner |title=A Student's Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible |publisher=InterVarsity Press |date=2006 |page=194 |isbn=9780198147473 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SIMsY6b2n2gC&q=obelos&pg=PA192 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="grube">{{cite book |first=George Maximilian Anthony |last=Grube |title=The Greek and Roman Critics |publisher=Hackett Publishing |date=1965 |page=128 |isbn=9780872203105 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jerucRW8UmMC&q=obelos&pg=PA128 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

While the asterisk (''asteriscus'') was used for corrective additions, the obelus was used for corrective deletions of invalid reconstructions.<ref name="BHS">{{cite book |title=A Simplified Guide to BHS: Critical Apparatus, Masora, Accents, Unusual Letters & Other Markings |edition=3rd |first1=William R. |last1=Scott |last2=Rüger |first2=H. P. |chapter=BHS Critical Apparatus |location=North Richland Hills, Texas |publisher=Bibal Press |date=1995 |chapter-url= http://www.ericlevy.com/Revel/Cosmogony/Guide%20to%20BHS%20Critical%20Aparatus.PDF |access-date=27 August 2011 |url= https://archive.org/details/simplifiedguidet0000scot |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> It was used when non-attested words are reconstructed for the sake of argument only, implying that the author did not believe such a word or word form had ever existed. Some scholars used the obelus and various other critical symbols, in conjunction with a second symbol known as the ''metobelos'' ("end of obelus"),<ref name="metobelus">{{cite web |first=Kevin |last=Knight |url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07316a.htm |title=Hexapla |work=The Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=New Advent LLC |access-date=27 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110904013754/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07316a.htm |archive-date=4 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> variously represented as two vertically arranged dots, a {{char|γ}}-like symbol, a mallet-like symbol, or a diagonal slash (with or without one or two dots). They indicated the end of a marked passage.<ref name="wurth">{{cite book |first=Ernst |last=Würthwein |title=The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Biblia Hebraica |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |date=1995 |page=58 |isbn=9780802807885 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FSNKSBObCYwC&q=metobelos&pg=PA58}}</ref>

It was used much in the same way by later scholars to mark differences between various translations or versions of the [[Bible]] and other manuscripts.<ref name="garrison">{{cite book |first=Daniel H. |last=Garrison |title=The Student's Catullus |date=2004 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |page=184 |isbn=9780806136356 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ESLZMFuTlDYC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PA184 |via=Google Books}}</ref> The [[early Christian]] [[Alexandria]]n scholar [[Origen]] ({{circa|184|253}} AD) used it to indicate differences between different versions of the [[Old Testament]] in his ''[[Hexapla]]''.<ref name="wegner" /><ref name="metobelus" /><ref name="jones">{{cite book |first=R. Grant |last=Jones |title=Notes on the Septuagint |date=2000 |chapter=The Septuagint in Early Christian Writings |page=4 |chapter-url= http://www.ixoyc.net/data/Fathers/531.pdf |access-date=27 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110813025341/http://ixoyc.net/data/Fathers/531.pdf |archive-date=13 August 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Epiphanius of Salamis]] (c. 310–320 – 403) used both a horizontal slash or hook (with or without dots) and an upright and slightly slanting dagger to represent an obelus. [[Jerome|St. Jerome]] (c. 347–420) used a simple horizontal slash for an obelus, but only for passages in the Old Testament.<ref name="smith&wace">{{cite book |editor1-first=William |editor1-last=Smith |editor2-first=Henry |editor2-last=Wace |title=A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines: During the First Eight Centuries – Being A Continuation of 'The Dictionary of the Bible' |volume=III: Hermogenes–Myensis |publisher=John Murray |date=1882 |url= https://archive.org/details/p1dictionaryofch03smituoft |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> He describes the use of the asterisk and the dagger as: "an asterisk makes a light shine, the obelisk cuts and pierces".<ref name="hamann">{{cite book |first1=Johann Georg |last1=Hamann |first2=Kenneth |last2=Haynes |title =Writings on Philosophy and Language |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/writingsonphilos0000hama/page/94 94] |isbn=9780199202461 |url= https://archive.org/details/writingsonphilos0000hama |url-access=registration |quote=obelus dagger}}</ref>

[[Isidore of Seville]] (c. 560–636) described the use of the symbol as follows: "The obelus is appended to words or phrases uselessly repeated, or else where the passage involves a false reading, so that, like the arrow, it lays low the superfluous and makes the errors disappear&nbsp;... The obelus accompanied by points is used when we do not know whether a passage should be suppressed or not."<ref name="enc">{{cite book |first=Richard Barrie |last=Dobson |title=Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages |volume=2 |publisher=Routledge |date=2000 |page=1038 |isbn=9781579582821 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=om4olQhrE84C&q=obelus%20death&pg=PA1038}}</ref>

Medieval scribes used the symbols extensively for critical markings of manuscripts. In addition to this, the dagger was also used in notations in early [[Christianity]], to indicate a minor intermediate pause in the [[chanting]] of [[Psalms]], equivalent to the [[quaver rest]] notation or the trope symbol in [[Hebrew cantillation]]. It also indicates a breath mark when reciting, along with the asterisk, and is thus frequently seen beside a [[comma]].<ref name="fenlon">{{cite book |editor-first=Iain |editor-last=Fenlon |first1=Kay |last1=Kaufman Shelemay |first2=Peter |last2=Jeffery |first3=Ingrid |last3=Monson |title=Early Music History: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music |date=1994 |chapter=Oral and written transmission in Ethiopian Christian Chant |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=81 |isbn=9780521451802 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Xt9FzmdCdskC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PA81}}</ref><ref name="seiyaku">{{cite web |url= http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/obelisk.html |title=Obelisk, Obelus, Dagger |work=Seiyaku.com |access-date=26 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110929075757/http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/obelisk.html |archive-date=29 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 16th century, the printer and scholar [[Robert Estienne]] (also known as Stephanus in [[Latin]] and Stephens in English) used it to mark differences in the words or passages between different printed versions of the Greek [[New Testament]] (''[[Textus Receptus]]'').<ref name="martin">{{cite book |first=David |last=Martin |title=A Critical Dissertation upon the Seventh Verse of the Fifth Chapter of St. John's First Epistle: There are three that bear record in Heaven, &c. – wherein the authentickness of this text is fully prov'd against the objections of Mr. Simon and the modern Arians |publisher=William and John Innys |chapter=X: Of the Obelus and Semicircle, the passage of St. John is mark'd with in Stephen's Edition |date=1719 |page=65 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4tlbAAAAQAAJ&q=obelus&pg=PA65 |author-link=David Martin (French theologian) |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Due to the variations as to the different uses of the different forms of the obelus, there is some controversy as to which symbols can actually be considered an obelus. The {{char|⨪}} symbol and its variant, the {{char|÷}}, is sometimes considered to be different from other obeli. The term 'obelus' may have referred strictly only to the horizontal slash and the dagger symbols.{{cn|date=January 2023}}