Comments on: Name that sign...

Question: Name that sign...

provocateur — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:03:51 -0800

dictionary filter: Is there a word for the universal "no" sign, that circle with the line through it? You know, the red one?

By: amro

amro — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:08:50 -0800

Believe it or not, it's called the no symbol.

By: visual mechanic

visual mechanic — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:16:41 -0800

I always call it the "ghostbuster sign" and people know what I'm talking about.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:18:09 -0800

The slash is a bar sinister, and 90% of people who aren't paying attention draw it wrong. Properly, it starts in the upper left and ends in the lower right.

By: Joleta

Joleta — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:21:02 -0800

Interdiction symbol

By: Sara Anne

Sara Anne — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:21:03 -0800

I think I remember in algebra it was called the "null set" or the "nil set"

By: gubo

gubo — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:25:24 -0800

Unicode calls it a "combining enclosing circle backslash" (⃠)

By: gubo

gubo — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:44:20 -0800

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) probably gave it a name in its ISO 7001 standard (public information symbols), but the text is copyrighted and not available anywhere on the web for free, it seems.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 22:12:47 -0800

People probably draw it wrong, Steven C., 'cause of Ghostbusters, actually. It had to be turned that way so the ghost would look right.

By: idiotfactory

idiotfactory — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 22:28:06 -0800

My typography professor calls it a "buster".

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 23:53:24 -0800

It had to be turned that way so the ghost would look right.

If that's truly the case, then that's just poor design. Draw the ghost facing the other way; problem solved.

That said, it's the finest movie logo there is. It's a thing of beauty.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:10:14 -0800

"Bar Sinister" huh? I always grew up thinking it was an anti-semetic name concocted by the writers of Underdog.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:11:47 -0800

"I always grew up "

Cause I grow up all the time. In the present progressive nonetheless.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:16:48 -0800

Did I just call "grew" present progressive? Shoot me now.

By: fleacircus

fleacircus — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:40:22 -0800

It's not a bar sinister, it's a bend sinister (heck it's a baton sinister) and it properly goes from upper right to lower left. Placing it over a coat of arms seems to have been the shorthand for indicating oneself as a bastard:

N.B. In French heraldic works the word barre is used as equivalent to a bend sinister, and this is supposed in many cases to be a mark of bastardy, Hence the expression is often found of a bar sinister, meaning a bend sinister

/comicbookstoreguy (also, limericks)

(Wikipedia is wrong as of this moment)

I don't have a reference for the theory that the negative connotations from heraldry resulted in the red slash across meaning "no", but Wikipedia suggests it.

(Personally I like "buster" as a name for it, like "splat" for the asterisk)

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 04:33:52 -0800

I've always called this symbol a "circle-slash".

fleacircus is right that it's not a bar sinister. However, it's not a bend sinister either -- the real "no symbol" appears to be a bend on an annulet, not a bend sinister on an annulet. But the Ghostbusters version does indeed have a bend sinister.

btw fleacircus, the Parker link you posted clarifies the bastardy issue as follows: "According to Nisbet, bends sinister were formerly much borne in Scotland, but have generally been changed to dexter bends of late, from a mistaken notion that they always betokened illegitimacy. It is the sinister baton (or diminutive bend couped), which alone conveys this disgrace. In Germany the bend is borne almost as frequently sinister as dexter." (emphasis mine)

By: hyperfascinated

hyperfascinated — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:25:17 -0800

I've always thought it was called the International No, or International No Symbol, etc. Not sure where I learned that, though.

By: folara

folara — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:11:44 -0800

I've often heard it called the "internation ban sign"