Writing and Reading

Watch this great segment from the YouTube Ninja. A question about commas….

Okay, let’s discuss. I did a little research on this topic. (why? I don’t know. I don’t think I have much of a life outside of writing. Sometimes I even read the dictionary for fun.) The very seriously taken-for-granted but easily-depended-on and relieving, all-important, super-easy-to-use (and then watch my next post be about a study on hyphens) COMMA has had quite the colorful history. Here’s the scoop–

The word, ‘comma’, appearing first in 1554, comes from Latin, which means ‘part of a sentence’. To venture further, it has Greek roots as well, derived from the word komma which stands for ’segment’ or ‘clause’. The word ‘comma’ was also derived from a larger word, koptein, which stands for ‘to cut’. Our modern version of the term, ‘to cut’, would be the Middle English word, capon, also derived from the Old English capun, which also has a French origin–also capon, or capun. The Lithuanian kapoti also means…’to mince’. These etymologies were also dated before the 12th century.

Here’s the really interesting thing about the history of the word…comma.

Our established definition in today’s English of the word, capon, which we know now was a literal ancestor of ‘comma’,  is actually this:

a castrated male chicken

So let’s take a look at the ‘comma’ again. Only larger….

,

And there we have it. I actually feel dirty just looking at it.

Also, on a separate note, so far, as I’m writing this post, I’ve used the ‘comma’ 24 times. Now I really feel dirty.

Have a nice day. Taco supreme.

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