tilde (tilde)

[Sp. tilde (= OF. title, tiltre ), an accent, mark, tittle, a more vernacular form of título, a title: see tittle2, title.] A diacritic mark (~) placed over the letter nin Spanish to indicate that it is sounded as a palatal n, or very nearly like n followed by y, as in señor, pronounced sānyôr', cañon, pronounced känyôn', and hence in English written canyon. This sound is represented in Portuguese by nh, in Italian and French by gn. The mark, also written as a straight dash, like the macron, was originally a small n, n representing nn, as in año for anno, from Latin ann us. The mark was much used for n or min medieval manuscripts, and hence in early printed books, being put above the preceding letter to save space: thus, mõumětů for monumentum. The tilde is also used in the Roman notation of Oriental and other languages: thus, % for the Sanskrit palatal nasal. It is sometimes used by analogy over I to indicate I followed by y (Spanish and French ll, Portuguese th, Italian gl ). Tilden Act. See act. , IMG:content-0417.jpg:[graphic]