English

An image of a virga or virgula, displaying its stem

Noun

virgula ‎(plural virgulas or virgulae)

1. (zoology) A small, thin, straight growth, particularly:
   1. (obsolete) The spines of a ray.
   2. (obsolete) The sicula of a graptolite.
2. (obsolete) A divining or dowsing rod.
3. (rare) Any small rod.
4. (typography, rare) Synonym of virgule: a punctuation mark.
   • 1728, Ephraim Chambers, "Point" in Cyclopædia:

     A Point with a Virgula, call'd a Semicolon.

   • 1934, Robert C. Priebsch & al., The German Language, volume II, chapter x, page 380:

     The full stop or, instead, a virgula, i.e. a short slanting strike (/) is used... to mark the end of a sentence or of a portion of a sentence followed by a pause.

5. (music, obsolete) Synonym of stem: the tail of a note.
6. (music, historical, obsolete) Synonym of virga: one of the neumes of medieval musical notation.

Synonyms

• (small rod): See Wikisaurus:stick

Related terms

• virgule

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "virgula, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1917.

French

Pronunciation

• Homophones: virgulas, virgulât

Verb

virgula

1. third-person singular past historic of virguler

Latin

Etymology

From virga ‎(“twig, branch”) +‎ -ula. As a typographic mark, from its resemblance and size.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈwir.ɡu.la/

Noun

virgula f ‎(genitive virgulae); first declension

1. a small rod, stick, wand, or staff
2. (medieval, typography) the slash mark ⟨/⟩, particularly (historical or obsolete) in its medieval use as a scratch comma.

Inflection

First declension.

Derived terms

• virgultum

Descendants

References

• virgula in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• virgula in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• VIRGULA in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)