After that last discussion, I was trying to work an interobang into a poster for the advertising department at my school as a joke but was thwarted by the fact that no one knows what it means. It was actually very disappointing to end up with just a plain old question mark.

Apparently…

‘Interrogatio’ is Latin for ‘question’ or ‘query’; ‘bang’ is printers’ slang for ‘exclamation point’.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang#History

Ed

Also “bang” is used by nerds to describe the exclamation point as well, viz. “bang path” for old UUCP-style internet addresses. See also “hash”, “pound”, “twiddle”, “splat”, etc.

is wikipedia not the coolest thing on the internet!?

;o)

I know printers that refer to exclamation marks as screamers

The Typophile house band should totally be called The Curly Screamers!

Hey, is there precedent for calling an exclamation mark a
“bang”? Is that the etymology of “interrobang”?