Talk:Section sign

Czech keyboard dedicated entry
Czech keyboard has a dedicated paragraph button. Should be added, but I can't edit the page...

217.30.66.51 (talk) 13:14, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Kalahari Bushmen
I removed all paragraph:


 * In the written language of the Kalahari Bushmen, the section sign is used to warn of nearby snakes, owing to its striking visual similarity to a pair of snakes intertwined. Snakes in Kalahari culture are associated with strong superstitious beliefs; many believe that simply reading about a snake can be fatal. Accordingly, the section sign can either indicate real snakes, or a written paragraph which mentions them.

It was unsourced, written by an anonymous user who was already warned for vandalism and it looks like nonsense. --Amir E. Aharoni 10:18, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

The Origin
I removed this sentence:


 * For an effect comparable to the contemporary use of bold type, early scribes would double stroke letters, hence the sign was developed from a double stroked letter S.

Apart from being unsourced, it is only one (and a rather uncommon) of the possible explanations for the origin of the sign. other theories include a double S referring to the latin "signum sectionis", a derivation from the letter C referring to the latin "caput", as well as various combinations of egyptian, greek and roman signs. It is an ongoing debate, and cannot be finally answered at this point. The various explanations can surely be integrated into the article, but preferably in a special section and with citation.

Meaning in Poland
In Poland, this sign means "paragraph," not "section." The Polish penal code, in turn, is organised in paragraphs. Thus, this sign shows up on the covers of books about law and on law enforcement officers' badges.

Description in this stub does not do a good job explaining that.
 * Yes and no. Indeed in Poland this sign is called "paragraph", but it is used nevertheless as a sign denoting sections. Basic unit in Polish laws is an article, not section (or paragraph). For instance the crime of ordinary homicide is in an article 148 § 1 in criminal code while homicide with the firearm in an article 148 § 2. Only very important laws use § signs (like criminal code, civil code, code of civil/administrative/criminal proceedings etc.) Other laws use so called "ustęps" instead of sections (§). IAAL. Przepla 20:38, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
 * That's not entirely true. Paragraph is actually used as a basic unit of legal text in government's regulations ("rozporządzenie", "zarządzenie", "uchwała" etc.) which are, by theirs nature, placed hierarchically lower than parliament's acts, either codes and ordinary acts, and as such could be regarded as "less important" (but in fact are the significant part of polish legal system). In the case the prevalent denoting pattern is e.g. "§ 1 ust. 1. ......." (section 1 subsection 1). Moreover, the paragraph sign is also used as an universal sign of independent piece of legal text in all kinds of written contracts, by-laws, organisational regulations and alike. Mroq (talk) 14:55, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

In Germany, Legal Codes are also organised in what is called "Paragraphs" in German. The §-sign is used. However, I can assure you that the widley accepted English translation for the German "Paragraph" is indeed section. I guess, it will be the same for the Polish word for §. 138.253.235.78 (talk) 10:43, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Also in Slovak, this sign means paragraf, which is correctly translated as section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.212.36.211 (talk) 20:48, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Just to be clear, the issue here isn't the name of the character as such, it's that in German, Polish, etc., the word "paragraph" means section, while the English word "paragraph" means something completely different (namely, a grouping of sentences, unrelated to being a unit in a legal sense; the German word, for example, is "Absatz"). Consequently, calling it a "paragraph sign" in English is incorrect, because an English paragraph is something totally different. (FWIW, outside of legalese, the English "section" translates to German "Abschnitt".) — tooki (talk) 19:20, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

The instructions for typing § on MS Windows is incorrect
At least when you are using a Swedish keyboard. Nopedia 14:57, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

They're also incorrect for macOS
At least as of the latest version 10.14.6. It's now Option-5. jen729w 10:00, 21 August 2019 (Australia)

Deleted Spore from list
"Many Maxis games, from SimCity 3000 onwards, including The Sims, The Sims Online, The Sims 2 and Spore, use this symbol (with a very round loop) to represent the unit of currency in the SimNation, the simoleon." There is no reference for Spore using Simoleans as any type of currency, in fact it has been suggested that 'evolution/eco points' or something similar will be a 'currency' in said game, I am removing Spore from this list, at least until someone turns up real proof. —Preceding unsigned comment added by KitsuneDragonRA (talk • contribs) 12:43, 2 March 2008 (UTC)


 * What happened to the references to Maxis games? If they were removed for good reason, can someone link to change that led to their removal for the benefit of future editors? InsertGenericMemeHere (talk) 17:38, 27 November 2018 (UTC)


 * Apparently, in the Maxis game, Spore, the in-game currency denoted by the symbol is a "Sporebuck", in use during the Civilization and Space stages of development. Also, the sign continues in use in The Sims franchise. The question arises, however, as to whether such usage is sufficiently noteworthy to merit re-inclusion in the article. As The Sims is undeniably a prominent game series with an international audience, it may. 2600:2B00:9214:4800:248D:F65:7219:B6A5 (talk) 02:15, 14 July 2019 (UTC)


 * I agree; I think its use to stand for Simoleons count as a use of the section sign "in pop culture", and merits inclusion. 122.213.236.124 (talk) 08:45, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Isn't this symbol called the scilicet?
Isn't the "section sign" actually called the scilicet? Calling it a "section sign" or "section symbol" is like calling the ampersand an "and sign," or the interpunct a "middle dot," or the tilda a "squiggly line." Shouldn't this entry be called the scilicet with a redirect from "Section sign"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by CShippee (talk • contribs) 02:57, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

-->I agree, I was taught in law school § was the symbol for scilicet, meaning "to wit", directing a persons attention to a particular section. --Noahsachs (talk) 13:58, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * As I remember from my law school this character is derived from the abbreviation "SS" and in handwriting should be written as two connected "S" one over another. In middle ages it meant something like "it is given", "it is announced". I cannot provide the proper source though (but Viz. seems to corroborate it). Mroq (talk) 15:36, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, Viz. is explicit that the symbol is sometimes used to mean scilicet. So this text at Viz. should be removed (though that seems less preferable) or moved to this page, where it seems more appropriate anyway:
 * "In legal usage, scilicet appears abbreviated as ss. It can also appear as a section sign (§) in a caption, where it is used to provide a statement of venue, that is to say a location where an action is to take place." Joel (talk) 23:26, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Viz. doesn't have a citation for that assertion and, given that it was challenged over ten years ago without response, my inclination is to delete it, period. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 00:35, 11 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Could scilicet be considered a special use of the symbol rather than its generic name? None of the following entries for scilicet mention a symbol or "§" specifically, although they do list the abbreviations "ss." and "sc."
 * Merriam-Webster
 * Merriam-Webster Word of the Day
 * American Heritage
 * Contrast this with ampersand, which is defined as "a character typically & ..." [emphasis added]. Pslide (talk) 18:10, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

I thought this was called the "stephanus symbol". anyone heard it called that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.205.102.187 (talk) 07:40, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

No in the USA it is § used for designating a Part like DOT 49 CFR §172.101  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.75.255.201 (talk) 15:22, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Why do I remember the symbol also being known as "hurricane"? (In addition to its other names.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.155.241.230 (talk) 03:37, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

It is called the "silcrow." See below. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.207.71.1 (talk) 19:56, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

This is not the name of the symbol but means “it is permitted to know” derivation Middle English then Latin. It is a lot like viz. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:6C50:407F:FF66:BC65:BC9E:C203:4069 (talk) 15:48, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

''' method of adding characters, you must use the numeric keypad. Using the number row will not produce the desired effect and may accidently activate some other command(s) that may be bound to the   being typed. This should be made clear for all instances where directions specify using   to add characters that may not be available on a user's keyboard.

For evidence, try it and see what happens (or does not happen). Pressing   with a US keyboard and the en-US locale active, you should get a one-half sign: ½. Now try it gain using the number row. JamesRTwine (talk) 17:09, 17 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the feedback and welcome to Wikipedia. If you click on the item Alt+, it takes you to the page that explains Windows Alt codes (I haven't looked, is your clarification recognised there? If not, please repeat your remarks at talk:Alt code because it should be). Per policy Wikipedia is not a manual, we don't go into detail in every article about to do things on every OS as it would rapidly become unmanageable. --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 21:53, 17 December 2023 (UTC)
 * No, it is addressed there. I never thought to try to click on the  Alt + 0167  text as it did not resemble a link to me.
 * Peace! JamesRTwine (talk) 04:34, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 April 2024
add Belgian keyboard to list of keyboards who have a dedicated way to access the § sign:

Some keyboards include dedicated ways to access §: Belgian: § (key left of è) Geverin (talk) 11:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅  (talk | contribs) 11:58, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * , is that the Belgian French or the Belgian Dutch or both? 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 12:56, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * It's all the Belgian keyboards
 * - Belgian (Comma)
 * - Belgian (Period)
 * - Belgian French Geverin (talk) 13:14, 8 April 2024 (UTC)