Pilcrow

In typography, the pilcrow (¶) is a grapheme used to identify a paragraph. In editorial production the pilcrow typographic character is also known as the paragraph mark, the paragraph sign, the paragraph symbol, the paraph, and the blind P.

In writing and editorial practice, authors and editors use the pilcrow grapheme to indicate the start of separate paragraphs, and to identify a new paragraph within a long block of text without paragraph indentions, as in the book An Essay on Typography (1931), by Eric Gill. In the Middle Ages, the practice of rubrication (type in red-ink) used a red pilcrow to indicate the beginning of a different train of thought within the author's narrative without paragraphs.

The letterform of the pilcrow resembles a minuscule q or a mirrored majuscule P, with a usually-doubled backbone reaching from the descender to the ascender height.

The bowl on the left side can be filled or empty, and occasionally extends far enough downward that the character resembles a mirrored D. The backbone is usually straight, but in some fonts curves toward the bowl.

Origin and name

The word pilcrow is a vernacular form of paragraph, showing dissimilation (compare Old French pelagraphe) and folk-etymological alteration. The word paragraph ultimately derives from Greek παράγραφος (parágraphos), meaning "written beside".

Use in Ancient Greek

The first way to divide sentences into groups in Ancient Greek was the original παράγραφος (parágraphos), which was a horizontal line in the margin to the left of the main text. As the paragraphos became more popular, the horizontal line eventually changed into the Greek letter gamma (⟨Γ⟩, ⟨γ⟩) and later into litterae notabiliores, which were enlarged letters at the beginning of a paragraph.

Use in Latin

The above notation soon changed to the letter ⟨K⟩, an abbreviation for the Latin word caput, which translates as "head", i.e.