Editing Dagger (mark) (section)

== Modern usage ==
The dagger usually indicates a [[footnote]] if an asterisk has already been used.<ref name="partridge" /> A third footnote employs the double dagger.<ref name="H&F">{{cite web |url= http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=190 |last=Hoefler |first=Jonathan |title=House of Flying Reference Marks, or Quillon & Choil |publisher=Hoefler & Frere-Jones |date=4 June 2009 |author-link=Jonathan Hoefler |access-date=6 April 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100205102319/http://typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=190 |archive-date=5 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Additional footnotes are somewhat inconsistent and represented by a variety of symbols, e.g., [[vertical bar|parallels]] ( {{larger|‖}} ), [[section sign]] {{char|§}}, and the [[pilcrow]] {{char|¶}}{{snd}} some of which were nonexistent in early modern [[typography]]. Partly because of this, [[superscript]] [[numeral system|numeral]]s have increasingly been used in modern literature in the place of these symbols, especially when several footnotes are required. Some texts use asterisks and daggers alongside superscripts, using the former for per-page footnotes and the latter for [[endnote]]s.

The dagger is also used to indicate [[death]],<ref name="H&F" /><ref name="reynolds" /> [[extinction]],<ref name="tudge" /> or [[obsolescence]].<ref name="partridge">{{cite book |author-link=Eric Partridge |first=Eric |last=Partridge |title=You Have a Point There: A Guide to Punctuation and Its Allies | orig-date=1953 | date=2004 | location=London | publisher=Routledge |page=235 |isbn=0-415-05075-8 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OudW3l2IoPUC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PA235}}</ref><ref name="oedguide" /> The asterisk and the dagger, when placed beside years, indicate year of birth and year of death respectively.<ref name="H&F" /> This usage is particularly common in [[German language|German]].<ref>{{cite book |editor=Komitees des Vereins Herold [Editorial Committee of the Herold Association] |title=Genealogisches Handbuch bürgerlicher Familien |trans-title=Genealogical Handbook of Burgher families |volume=5 |language=de |date=1912 |orig-year=1897 |publisher=C. A. Starke |location=Görlitz |url= http://mbc.cyfrowemazowsze.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=3207 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170318085549/http://mbc.cyfrowemazowsze.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=3207 |archive-date=18 March 2017 |via=Mazowiecka Biblioteka Cyfrowa (Masovian Digital Library)}}</ref> When placed immediately before or after a person's name, the dagger indicates that the person is deceased.<ref name="H&F" /><ref name="knowles">{{cite book |first= Elizabeth |last=Knowles |title=Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199202461 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=r2KIvsLi-2kC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PT1104}}</ref><ref name="campbell">{{cite book |first=Alastair |last=Campbell |title=The Digital Designer's Jargon Buster |date=2004 |publisher=The Ilex Press |page=84 |isbn=9781904705352 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=URyQM0btTbIC&q=obelus%20dagger&pg=PT87}}</ref><ref name="lennard">{{cite book |editor-first=John |editor-last=Lennard |title=The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2005 |page=140 |chapter=Punctuation |isbn=9780199265381 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0eRtOqjNMxEC&q=obelus%20death&pg=PA140 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In this usage, it is referred to as the "death dagger".<ref name="aps">{{cite web |url= http://www.apsstylemanual.org/oldmanual/parts/authors.htm |title=Author Line |work=The APS Online Style Manual |access-date=26 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120331065709/http://www.apsstylemanual.org/oldmanual/parts/authors.htm |archive-date=31 March 2012 |url-status=dead |publisher=American Psychological Society}}</ref>  Death-related usages include:
*In [[biology]], the dagger next to a taxon name indicates that the [[taxon]] is [[Extinction|extinct]].<ref name="reynolds">{{cite book |first=John D. |last=Reynolds |title=Handbook of Fish Biology and Fisheries |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=2002 |page=108 |isbn=9780632054121 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=V0MWxaEaO00C&q=dagger%20symbol%20extinction&pg=PA108}}</ref><ref name="tudge">{{cite book |first=Colin |last=Tudge |title=The Variety of Life: A Survey and a Celebration of All the Creatures That Have Ever Lived |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2000 |page=93 |chapter=Conventions for Naming Taxa |isbn=9780198604266 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YW-2gnuU0L0C&q=dagger%20symbol%20extinction&pg=PA93 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="hull">{{cite book |first=David L. |last=Hull |title=Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1990 |page=[https://archive.org/details/scienceasprocess0000hull_i6q1/page/254 254] |isbn=9780226360515 |url = https://archive.org/details/scienceasprocess0000hull_i6q1 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |quote=dagger symbol extinction}}</ref>
*In [[chemistry]], the double dagger is used in chemical kinetics to indicate a short-lived [[transition state]] species.
*In [[genealogy]], the dagger is used traditionally to mark a death in genealogical records.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Tamura |title=Genealogy Symbols |url= https://www.tamurajones.net/GenealogySymbols.xhtml |website=Modern Software Experience |access-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307160900/http://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://www.tamurajones.net/GenealogySymbols.xhtml |archive-date=7 March 2022}}</ref>
*In [[chess notation]], the dagger may be suffixed to a move to signify the move resulted in a check, and a double dagger denotes checkmate. This is a stylistic variation on the more common {{char|+}} ([[plus sign]]) for a check and {{char|#}} ([[number sign]]) for checkmate.
*In [[linguistics]], the dagger placed after a language name indicates an extinct language.
*In [[philology]], the dagger indicates an obsolete form of a word or phrase.<ref name="partridge" /> As language that has become obsolete in everyday use tends to live on elsewhere, the dagger can indicate language only occurring in poetical texts<ref>{{Cite book| first=John R. Clark | last=Hall | author-link=John Richard Clark Hall | title=A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary for the Use of Students | edition=2nd | location=New York | publisher=Macmillan | year=1916 | pages=vi, vii | url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31543/pg31543-images.html | via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> or "restricted to an archaic, literary style".<ref>{{Cite book | first=Michael Alan | last=Jones | title=Foundations of French Syntax | series=Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1996 | isbn=0-521-38104-5 | page=xxv}}</ref>
* In the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', the dagger symbol indicates an obsolete word.<ref name="oedguide">{{cite web |url= http://www.oed.com/public/oed3guide |title=Guide to the Third Edition of the OED |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=26 August 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110830221219/http://www.oed.com/public/oed3guide |archive-date=30 August 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Non-death usages include:
*The asteroid [[37 Fides]], the last asteroid to be assigned an [[Astronomical symbols|astronomical symbol]] before the practice faded, was assigned the dagger.
*In [[Anglican chant]] pointing, the dagger indicates a verse to be sung to the second part of the chant.
*In some early printed [[Bible translations]], a dagger or double dagger indicates that a literal translation of a word or phrase is to be found in the margin. 
*In library [[Cataloging (library science)|cataloging]], a double dagger delimits [[MARC standards|MARC]] subfields.
*On a [[cricket]] scorecard or team list, the dagger indicates the team's [[wicket-keeper]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.espncricinfo.com/wc2007/engine/match/247499.html |title=Cricket Scorecard: 43rd Match, Super Eights: Australia v Sri Lanka at St George's |date=16 April 2007 |publisher=[[ESPN]] Cricinfo |access-date=19 March 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150404162555/http://www.espncricinfo.com/wc2007/engine/match/247499.html |archive-date=4 April 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>
*Some [[logic]]ians use the dagger as an affirmation ('it is true that ...') operator.<ref>{{Cite journal| last=Beall |first=Jc<!--Not a typo. This writer's name is always credited as "Jc Beall" for some reason.--> |title=Christ: A Contradiction |journal=Journal of Analytic Theology |volume=7 |pages=400–433 |doi=10.12978/jat.2019-7.090202010411 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
*The [[palochka]] is transliterated to a double dagger in the [[ISO 9]] standard for converting [[Cyrillic]] to Latin
*In psychological statistics the dagger indicates that a difference between two figures is not [[Statistical significance|significant]] to a ''p''<0.05 level, however is still considered a "trend" or worthy of note. Commonly this will be used for a p-value between 0.1 and 0.05.
*In [[mathematics]] and, more often, [[physics]], a dagger denotes the [[Hermitian adjoint]] of an operator; for example, ''A''<sup>†</sup> denotes the adjoint of ''A''. This notation is sometimes replaced with an asterisk, especially in mathematics. An operator is said to be Hermitian if ''A''<sup>†</sup> = ''A''.<ref>{{MathWorld|title=Dagger|urlname=Dagger}}</ref>
*In [[textual criticism]] and in some editions of works written before the invention of printing, daggers enclose text that is believed not to be original.<ref name="wegner" />
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[[Image:Daggers.svg|left|thumb|600px|Dagger and double-dagger symbols in a variety of [[font]]s, showing the differences between stylized and non-stylized characters. Fonts from left to right: [[DejaVu Sans]], [[Times New Roman]], [[LTC Remington Typewriter]], [[Garamond]], and [[Old English Text MT]]]]
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While daggers are freely used in English-language texts, they are often avoided in other languages because of their similarity to the Christian cross.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}