ditto mark ” | ||
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The ditto mark (”) is a typographic symbol indicating that the word(s) or figure(s) above it are to be repeated. For example:
The word ditto comes from the Tuscan language, where it is the past participle of the verb dire (to say), with the meaning of "said", as in the locution "the said story". The first recorded use of ditto with this meaning in English occurs in 1625. Early evidence of ditto marks can be seen on a cuneiform tablet of the Neo-Assyrian period (934 – 608 BC) where two vertical marks are used in a table of synonyms to repeat text, while in China the corresponding mark is two horizontal lines (二); see iteration mark.
Shape
The graphical shape of the ditto mark may vary according to different language uses. It is generally represented by a quotation mark pointing to the right. Therefore, it will be ” in English, » in French, „ in German, and so on. The abbreviation do. is also used [see above] .
The usage of other charcters should be avoided such as:
" · ") is from the typewriter era, when there were no resources to type the curved quotation mark (”);″ · ″) has a slightly different shape and it is used in other contexts (mathematical, measurement, etc.);〃) is to be used in CJK scripts only.