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Webster 1913 Edition

Punctuation

Puncˊtu-a′tion

,
Noun.
[Cf. F.
ponctuation
.]
(Gram.)
The act or art of punctuating or pointing a writing or discourse; the art or mode of dividing literary composition into sentences, and members of a sentence, by means of points, so as to elucidate the author’s meaning.
☞ Punctuation, as the term is usually understood, is chiefly performed with four points: the period [.], the colon [:], the semicolon [;], and the comma [,]. Other points used in writing and printing, partly rhetorical and partly grammatical, are the note of interrogation [?], the note of exclamation [!], the parentheses [()], the dash [–], and brackets []. It was not until the 16th century that an approach was made to the present system of punctuation by the Manutii of Venice. With Caxton, oblique strokes took the place of commas and periods.

Webster 1828 Edition

Punctuation

PUNCTUA'TION

,
Noun.
In grammar, the act or art of pointing a writing or discourse, or the act or art of marking with points the divisions of a discourse into sentences and clauses or members of a sentence. Punctuation is performed by four points, the period (.); the colon (:); the semicolon ( ;); and the comma (,). The ancients were unacquainted with punctuation; they wrote without any distinction of members, period or words.

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