Editing Pilcrow (section)

== Origin and name ==
The English word ''pilcrow'' derives from the {{langx|grc|παράγραφος}} &lsqb;[[paragraphos|{{Transliteration|grc|parágraphos}}]]&rsqb;, "written in the side" or "written in the margin". In Old French, ''parágraphos'' became the word {{lang|fro|paragraphe}} and later {{lang|fro|pelagraphe}}. The earliest English language reference to the modern pilcrow is in 1440, with the Middle English word {{lang|enm|pylcrafte}}.<ref>{{cite book | author = Keith Houston | chapter = The Pilcrow | title = Shady characters : ampersands, interrobangs and other typographical curiosities | date = 29 January 2015 | page=16 | isbn= 9780718193881 | location = London | publisher = Penguin}}</ref>

=== Use in Ancient Greek ===
[[File:GNM3227a 6r.jpg|thumb|Three short paragraphs on making gunpowder in the manuscript [[GNM 3227a]] (Germany, c. 1400); the first paragraph is marked with an early form of the pilcrow sign, the two following paragraphs are introduced with ''litterae notabiliores'' (enlarged letters).]]
[[File:Villanova-rudimenta-grammaticæ-Valencia-1500.jpg|thumb|Pilcrow signs in an excerpt from a page of ''Villanova, Rudimenta Grammaticæ'', printed by Spindeler in 1500 in Valencia.<ref name=Updike>{{cite book |last=Updike |first=Daniel Berkeley |title=Printing types, their history, forms and use, a study in survivals by Daniel Berkeley Updike |date=1922 |volume= I |page= 108| url=https://archive.org/details/printingtypesthe01updi/page/108/mode/2up}}</ref>]]
[[Image:Pilcrow-history.svg|thumb|Possible development from ''capitulum'' to modern paragraph symbol.<ref name=General />]]

The first way to divide sentences into groups in Ancient Greek was the original {{lang|grc|παράγραφος}} [{{Transliteration|grc|parágraphos}}], which was a horizontal line in the margin to the left of the main text.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyenglishp00lewigoog |title=The History of the English Paragraph |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1894 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyenglishp00lewigoog/page/n13 9] |author=Edwin Herbert Lewis}}</ref> As the {{lang|grc|paragraphos}} became more popular, the horizontal line eventually changed into the Greek letter [[Gamma]] ({{angbr|Γ}}, {{angbr|γ}}) and later into {{lang|la|[[Initial|litterae notabiliores]]}}, which were enlarged letters at the beginning of a paragraph.<ref>{{cite book|page =10 | author=M. B. Parkes |chapter = Introduction: Glossary of Technical Terms | title=Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West  | location = Berkeley | publisher= University of California Press| date =1993 | isbn= 9780520079410}}</ref>

=== Use in Latin ===
The above notation soon changed to the letter {{angbr|K}}, an abbreviation for the Latin word {{lang|la|[[wikt:caput|caput]]}}, which translates as "head", i.e. it marks the head of a new thesis.<ref>{{cite book|page =12 | author=M. B. Parkes |chapter = 1. Antiquity: Aids for Inexperienced Readers and the Prehistory of Punctuation | title=Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West  | location = Berkeley | publisher= University of California Press| date =1993 | isbn= 9780520079410}}</ref> Eventually, to mark a new section, the Latin word {{lang|la|[[wikt:capitulum|capitulum]]}}, which translates as "little head", was used, and the letter {{angbr|C}} came to mark a new section, or chapter,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.typography.com/blog/pilcrow-capitulum |title=Pilcrow & Capitulum |last= Hoefler |first=Jonathan |date= 12 Mar 2008|website=Typography.com |publisher=Hoefler&Co |access-date=4 November 2022 |quote=It's tempting to recognize the symbol as a "P for paragraph," though the resemblance is incidental: in its original form, the mark was an open C crossed by a vertical line or two, a scribal abbreviation for capitulum, the Latin word for chapter.}}</ref> in 300 BC.<ref>{{cite book|author = David Sacks | chapter= K and its Kompetitors | title=The Alphabet: Unravelling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z | location = London |publisher = Hutchinson | date=2003| page= 206 |isbn= 9780091795061}}</ref>

=== Use in Middle Ages ===
In the 1100s, {{angbr|C}} had completely replaced {{angbr|K}} as the symbol for a new chapter.<ref name=General>{{cite book|page =43 | author=M. B. Parkes |chapter = The Development of the General Repertory of Punctuation | title=Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West  | location = Berkeley | publisher= University of California Press| date =1993 | isbn= 9780520079410}}</ref> [[Rubrication|Rubricators]] eventually added one or two [[vertical bar]]s to the {{char|C}} to stylize it (as <big>{{char|⸿}}</big>); the "[[bowl (typography)|bowl]]" of the symbol was filled in with dark ink and eventually looked like the modern pilcrow, <big>{{char|¶}}</big>.<ref name=General />

(Scribes would often leave space before paragraphs to allow rubricators to add a hand-drawn pilcrow in contrasting ink. With the introduction of the printing press from the late medieval period on, space before paragraphs was still left for rubricators to complete by hand. However in some circumstances, rubricators could not draw fast enough for publishers' deadlines and books would often be sold with the beginnings of the paragraphs left blank. This is how the practice of [[wikt:indention|indention]] before paragraphs was created.<ref>{{cite book | first=Jan |last=Tschichold |editor-first= Robert |editor-last=Bringhurst |translator = Hajo Hadeler | chapter=Why the Beginnings of Paragraphs Must Be Indented |title=Ausgewählte Aufsätze über Fragen der Gestalt des Buches und der Typographie | orig-date=1975 |trans-title= The form of the book : essays on the morality of good design | location =London |publisher= Lund Humphries |date= 1991 |isbn= 9780853316237 |oclc=220984255| pages = 105–109}}</ref>)