Slash

[cos]

A slash: /

A backslash: \

Slashfic is named after the slash: Kirk/Spock
Fractions are written sometimes with slashes: 1/2
When you list alternatives in a sentence, you may say "slash": his/her
There are slashes in URLs: http://cos.livejournal.com/profile

Backslashes appear nowhere in the natural world, aside from a crufty old operating system from Microsoft and some of its descendants. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten half the computing world into saying "backslash" wherever either a slash or a backslash appears. This creates confusion, and wastes syllables. I know syllables aren't such a limited resource and we can always make more, but conservation of syllables seems to be a driving force in the evolution of English, so we should be able to defeat this annoying anomaly.

If in doubt, just say "slash". You'll rarely be wrong (as opposed to being wrong almost all the time if you're in doubt and say "blackslash").

Please pass it on! Thank you :)

Comments

[ron_newman]

Also unnecessary: "forward slash", which I sometimes hear on public radio stations when they are trying to announce their sponsors' URLs.

A digression -- whatever happened to Uniform Resource Names (URNs), which by now were supposed to largely supplant URLs and be much more human-friendly?

Amusingly

[drwex]

"forward slash" is what's known as a 'back formation' - which is where an old word changes in response to the appearance of a new thing or word. For example, typewriter just always meant typewriters until electric typewriters appeared, at which point "manual typewriter" appeared as a back-formation.

Cos, I'm surprised to learn that people pronounce the slash in reading things like "his/hers" - I always use the words 'or' or 'and' there. In fact, one of the writing guides I try to follow is never to use slashes in that way because the person reading it doesn't know whether you mean "or" or "and." Use those words instead - or so I was taught.

Re: Amusingly

[dougo.livejournal.com]

That's known as a retronym (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retronym). A back-formation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-formation) is a new word created from a longer word by mistaking its etymology, e.g. the verb "tase" from "taser" (which is an acronym).

Re: Amusingly

[crayonsnifr.livejournal.com]

I was always taught that the presence of the / for instance in his/her meant dually "and" and "or" not just one or the other making it interchangeable.

Re: Amusingly

[cos]

Yes, I agree, / in that context means and/or.