The problem with the semicolon is not how it looks but what it does and how that has changed over time. In her delightful history, Watson brings the Bembo semicolon alive, describing вЂњits comma-half tensely coiled, tail thorn-sharp beneath the perfect orb thrown high above it.вЂќ Designers, she explains, have since given the mark a вЂњrelaxed and fuzzyвЂќ look (Poliphilus), rendered it вЂњaggressiveвЂќ (Garamond), and otherwise adapted it for the modern age: вЂњPalatinoвЂ™s is a thin flapper in a big hat slouched against the wall at a party.вЂќ The mark was a hybrid between a comma and a colon, and its purpose was to prolong a pause or create a more distinct separation between parts of a sentence. Its author, Pietro Bembo, is best known today not for his book but for the typeface, designed by Francesco Griffo, in which the first semicolon was displayed: Bembo. вЂњDe Aetna,вЂќ Watson explains, was вЂњan essay, written in dialogue form,вЂќ about climbing Mt. It first appeared in 1494, in a book published in Venice by Aldus Manutius. The semicolon itself was a Renaissance invention. But whereas Griffin, an adman, provides straightforward rules, albeit with a bushel of exceptions (and a running joke: every use of the word вЂњapostropheвЂќ is preceded by a profanity), Watson, a historian and philosopher of science and a teacher of writing and the humanities-in other words, a Renaissance woman-gives us a deceptively playful-looking book that turns out to be a scholarly treatise on a sophisticated device that has contributed eloquence and mystery to Western civilization. Both are slim volumes about an element of language that gives people endless grief. Fortunately, now I donвЂ™t have to, because Cecelia Watson, a self-identified вЂњpunctuation theoristвЂќ who teaches at Bard College, has written a whole book about them: вЂњ Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark.вЂќДЄt first, I thought Watson was doing with the semicolon what Simon Griffin did with the apostrophe in вЂњ Fucking ApostrophesвЂќ (2015). I donвЂ™t hate semicolons I hate writing about semicolons. Among my fellow punctuation nerds, I have a reputation as someone who has no use for semicolons.

Greek question mark and semicolon