Editing Interrobang (section)

==History==
[[File:interrobang.svg|thumb|75px|class=skin-invert-image|An interrobang in the [[Palatino]] [[Mergenthaler Linotype Company|Linotype]] font]]
Historically, writers have used multiple consecutive punctuation marks to end a sentence expressing both surprise and question.
{{quote|What the...?! Neves, Called Dead in Fall, Denies It|headline from ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'', May 9, 1936}}

===Invention===
American Martin K. Speckter (June 14, 1915 – February&nbsp;14, 1988)<ref>{{cite news|title=Martin K. Speckter, 73, Creator of Interrobang|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/16/obituaries/martin-k-speckter-73-creator-of-interrobang.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320015031/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/16/obituaries/martin-k-speckter-73-creator-of-interrobang.html|archive-date=March 20, 2016|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|date=16 February 1988|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> conceptualized the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if [[Copywriting|copywriters]] conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine ''TYPEtalks''.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Spekter, Martin K. |title=Making a New Point, or, How About That&nbsp;…|journal=TYPEtalks|date=March–April 1962}}</ref> Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included ''exclamaquest'', and ''exclarotive'', but he settled on ''interrobang''. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: ''interrogatio'' is Latin for "rhetorical question" or "cross-examination";<ref>{{ cite web
| first = Gideon O.
| last = Burton
| title = interrogatio
| url = http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/I/interrogatio.htm
| access-date = August 28, 2007
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051119182734/http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/figures/I/interrogatio.htm
| archive-date = November 19, 2005
| website = Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric
| publisher = [[Brigham Young University]]
}}</ref> ''bang'' is printers' slang for the exclamation mark. Graphic treatments for the new mark were also submitted in response to the article.<ref name=fonthaus>{{cite web
| first = Allan
| last = Haley
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080507055249/http://www.fonthaus.com/xheight/interrobang.cfm
| title = The Interrobang Is Back
| url = http://www.fonthaus.com/xheight/interrobang.cfm
| date = June 2001
| publisher = fonthaus.com
| archive-date = May 7, 2008
| access-date = December 3, 2010
}}</ref>

===Early interest===
In 1965, [[Richard Isbell]] created the [[Americana (typeface)|Americana]] typeface for [[American Type Founders]] and included the interrobang as one of the characters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Houston |first1=Keith |title=Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks |date=2013 |publisher=W. W. Norton |location=New York |page=29}}</ref> In 1968, an interrobang key was available on some [[Remington Rand|Remington]] [[typewriter]]s. In the 1970s, replacement interrobang keycaps and [[typeface]]s were available for some [[Smith-Corona]] typewriters.<ref>[http://sites.google.com/site/rpforwarded/Home/interrobang1.jpg Smith-Corona flyer illustrating the Changeable Type system with an exclamation mark / interrobang unit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326214527/http://sites.google.com/site/rpforwarded/Home/interrobang1.jpg |date=March 26, 2009 }} Accessed March 7, 2009.</ref>
The interrobang was in vogue for much of the 1960s; the word ''interrobang'' appeared in some dictionaries, and the mark was used in magazine and newspaper articles.<ref name=fonthaus />

===Continued support===
Most fonts do not include the interrobang, but it has not disappeared. [[Lucida Grande]], the default font for many UI elements of legacy versions of [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[OS X]] operating system, includes the interrobang, and [[Microsoft]] provides several versions of the interrobang in the [[Wingdings|Wingdings 2]] character set (on the right bracket and tilde keys on US keyboard layouts), included with [[Microsoft Office]].<ref>[http://www.interrobang-mks.com/ The Interrobang: A Twentieth Century Punctuation Mark.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041013080952/http://www.interrobang-mks.com/ |date=October 13, 2004 }} Accessed August 28, 2007.</ref> It was accepted into [[Unicode]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf |title=Unicode Code Charts, General Punctuation, 2000–206F |access-date=March 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804231917/http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf |archive-date=August 4, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> and is included in several fonts, including [[Lucida Sans Unicode]], [[Arial Unicode MS]], and [[Calibri]], the default font in the [[Microsoft Office 2007|Office 2007]], [[Microsoft Office 2010|2010]], and [[Microsoft Office 2013|2013]] suites.<ref>[http://blogs.msdn.com/fontblog/archive/2005/12/22/506936.aspx MSDN fontblog] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307025631/http://blogs.msdn.com/fontblog/archive/2005/12/22/506936.aspx |date=March 7, 2010 }}. Accessed August 28, 2007.</ref>