punctuation

[French, from punctuer = to punctuate (q.v.).] The act, art, or method of punctuating or pointing a writing or discourse; the act, art, or method of dividing a discourse into sentences, clauses, ., by means of points or stops. Punctuation is performed with four points or marks, viz., the period (.), the colon (:), the semicolon(;), and the comma(,). The other points used in composition are the note of interrogation or inquiry (?), and of exclamation, astonishment, or admiration (!). The first printed books had only arbitrary marks here and there, and it was not until the sixteenth century that an approach was made to the present system by the Manutii of Venice. "Punctuation is the art of marking in writing the several pauses, c or rests, between sentences, and the parts of sentences."-Lowth. English Grammar.