Expert: Ralph Salier - 5/19/2005

Question
I'm doing a research about the "question point". How did it originate, what was its primal meaning and what does the spiral form mean? If you cannot answer, would you please write me who's the right expert? I know it's hard to define such a subject, "history of literature"(?)
thx

Answer
Lorenzo,  

The proper term is question mark.  It is a rather old symbol from the middle ages and was used to signify an "unknown" on maps and in other documents.  The symbol comes from the curve of an animals tail.  If you have ever looked at a dog or cat, when the tilt their heads in a way to evoke a question? then look at the tail it looks like a question mark.  

Over time, it has come to mean a "question" has been asked.  Its first use in punctuation was in the 1400's in written documents kept by municipalities when a bit of information was unknown, the question mark was used to mark t he place the information was to be inserted when found.