Editing Ellipsis (section)

==In writing==
In her book on the ellipsis, ''Ellipsis in English Literature: Signs of Omission'', Anne Toner suggests that the first use of the punctuation in the English language dates to a 1588 translation of [[Terence]]'s ''[[Andria (comedy)|Andria]]'', by [[Maurice Kyffin]].<ref name="Toner" /> In this case, however, the ellipsis consists not of dots but of short dashes.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/dot-dot-dot-how-the-ellipsis-made-its-mark |first=Alex |last=Buxton |title=... dot, dot, dot: How the ellipsis made its mark |work= Research |date=21 October 2015 |location=Cambridge, England |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180104063312/https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/dot-dot-dot-how-the-ellipsis-made-its-mark |archive-date=4 January 2018 |access-date=27 July 2018}}</ref> "Subpuncting" of [[medieval]] manuscripts also denotes omitted meaning and may be related.<ref>{{cite news |last=McNabb |first=Cameron Hunt |title=The Mysterious History of the Ellipsis, From Medieval Subpuncting to Irrational Numbers |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2016/08/17/the_ellipsis_in_medieval_manuscripts_how_subpuncting_in_the_middle_ages.html |access-date=18 August 2016 |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=17 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818080323/http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2016/08/17/the_ellipsis_in_medieval_manuscripts_how_subpuncting_in_the_middle_ages.html |archive-date=18 August 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The popularity of the ellipsis took off after Kyffin's usage; containing three examples in his 1588 translation of ''Andria'', by the 1627 translation of the same play there were 29 examples of its usage.<ref name="CUP"/> They appear in [[William Shakespeare]]'s plays in addition to [[Ben Jonson]]'s.<ref name="CUP"/> In 1634, John Barton, an English schoolmaster, wrote in ''The Art of Rhetorick'' that "eclipsis" is much used in playbooks “where they are noted thus ---”.<ref name="CUP">{{cite news |title=… dot, dot, dot: how the ellipsis made its mark |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/dot-dot-dot-how-the-ellipsis-made-its-mark |access-date=25 December 2024 |publisher=University of Cambridge}}</ref> In the first folio edition of Shakespeare’s ''[[Henry IV, Part 1]]'', Toner writes, "Hotspur dies on a dash", with his last words cut short.<ref name="CUP"/>

Different types of ellipsis faced opposition. In the 18th-century, [[Jonathan Swift]] rhymed "dash" with "printed trash", while [[Henry Fielding]] chose the name 'Dash' for an unlikeable character in his 1730 play ''[[The Author's Farce]]''.<ref name="CUP"/> It has also been championed by writers such as [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], [[Jane Austen]] and [[Virginia Woolf]].<ref name="CUP"/> According to Toner, an early example of the dot dot dot phrase is in Woolf's short story "[[A Haunted House and Other Short Stories|An Unwritten Novel]]" (1920).<ref name="Toner"/>

Occasionally, it would be used in [[Pulp magazine|pulp fiction]] and other works of early 20th-century fiction to denote expletives that would otherwise have been censored.<ref>Raymond Chandler, Frank MacShane. ''Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels''. First Edition. [[New York City|New York]]: [[Library of America]]. 1995. ''Note on the Texts''.</ref>

An ellipsis may also imply an unstated alternative indicated by context. For example, "I never drink wine&nbsp;..." implies that the speaker does drink something else{{mdash}}such as vodka.

In reported speech, the ellipsis can be used to represent an intentional silence.

In poetry, an ellipsis is used as a thought-pause or [[Line break (poetry)|line break]] at the [[caesura]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://classroom.synonym.com/ellipses-poem-3994.html|title=What Are Ellipses in a Poem?|access-date=12 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305173518/http://classroom.synonym.com/ellipses-poem-3994.html|archive-date=5 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> or this is used to highlight [[sarcasm]] or make the reader think about the last points in the poem.

In news reporting, often put inside square [[brackets]], it is used to indicate that a quotation has been condensed for space, brevity or relevance, as in "The President said that [...] he would not be satisfied", where the exact quotation was "The President said that, for as long as this situation continued, he would not be satisfied".

[[Herb Caen]], Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', became famous for his "three-dot journalism".<ref name=Caen>[http://www.deseretnews.com/article/492296/HERB-CAEN-WAY----HONORS-SF-COLUMNIST.html `HERB CAEN WAY . . .' HONORS S.F. COLUMNIST] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905231945/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/492296/HERB-CAEN-WAY----HONORS-SF-COLUMNIST.html |date=2017-09-05 }}, in the ''[[Deseret News]]''; published May 29, 1996; retrieved September 5, 2017</ref>

Depending on context, ellipsis can indicate an unfinished thought, a leading statement, a slight [[Pausa|pause]], an echoing voice, or a nervous or awkward silence. [[Aposiopesis]] is the use of an ellipsis to trail off into silence—for example: "But I thought he was..." When placed at the end of a sentence, an ellipsis may be used to suggest melancholy or longing.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ellipsis |url=http://www.bookdesign.ca/31a_Ellipsis.htm |access-date=2021-04-29 |website=bookdesign.ca | year=2011}}</ref>

In newspaper and magazine columns, ellipses may separate items of a list instead of paragraph breaks.<ref name="MerriamWebster" />{{rp|21}}

[[Merriam-Webster]]'s ''Manual for Writers and Editors'' uses a line of ellipsis to indicate omission of whole lines in a quoted poem.<ref name="MerriamWebster" />{{rp|147}}