§

June 21, 2008 5:06 AM

What is this character: §. And what is it's use?

I believe it signifies in the context of RSS feeds that a message only contains text in the subject line. A confirmation would be great and reference to a table of similar characters and their use would be great as well.
Thank you

posted by strangelove to education (6 comments total)

Wikipedia says it's a "Section" symbol, used to refer to different parts of a document.
Section Sign

There's a whole section about punctuation on wikipedia.
posted by lucidium at 5:12 AM on June 21, 2008

In the US legal system it is used to pinpoint a specific part of a cited statute. For example, 17 U.S.C. § 102. In contrast, the English and Canadian legal systems would use "s" in the same place, ie The Telecommunications Act, s. 102.
posted by modernnomad at 5:14 AM on June 21, 2008

It's a section symbol, and in the legal profession in particular (in the U.S., anyway) it's used in citing statutes.
posted by AV at 5:15 AM on June 21, 2008

Prompt responses, thank you all.
Question closed.
posted by strangelove at 5:16 AM on June 21, 2008

It's also the simolean.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 8:12 AM on June 21, 2008

Question closed.
It is requested that you add a "resolved" tag to questions which have been answered to your satisfaction
posted by mumkin at 11:31 AM on June 21, 2008