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{{Short description|Oblique slanting line punctuation mark '/'}}
{{About|the punctuation|the root directory in Unix and Unix-like operating systems|Root directory|the episode of ''Person of Interest''|/ (Person of Interest)}}
{{Technical reasons|:/|the keyboard symbol|List of emoticons}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox punctuation mark|mark=/|name=Slash
|variant1= ⁄ |caption1=Fraction slash
|variant2= ∕ |caption2=Division slash
|variant3=／|caption3=Fullwidth solidus
}}
The '''slash''' is an oblique slanting line [[#Conjunction|punctuation mark]] {{char|/}}. Once used to mark [[full stop|periods]] and [[comma]]s, the slash is now most often used to represent [[#XOR|exclusive]] or [[#And|inclusive or]], [[#Division|division]] and [[#Fractions|fractions]], and as a [[#Dating|date separator]]. It is called a '''solidus''' in [[Unicode]], it is also known as an '''oblique stroke''', and it has [[#Alternative names|several other historical or technical names]], including '''oblique''' and '''virgule'''.
In the 18th century, the mark was generally known in English as the "[[#oblique|oblique]]".<ref name=oedobli/> The variant "oblique stroke" was increasingly shortened to "[[#stroke|stroke]]", which became the common British name for the character, although printers and publishing professionals often instead referred to it as an "oblique". In the 19th and early 20th century, it was also widely known as the "[[#shilling|shilling mark]]" or "[[#solidus|solidus]]", from itystem]]s, which use the [[backslash]] extensively.<ref name=jed/><ref name=turton/>▼
A slash in the reverse direction {{char|\}} is known as a [[backslash]].
==History==
Slashes may be found in early writing as a variant form of [[dash (typography)|dashes]], [[vertical bar|vertical strokes]], etc. The present use of a slash distinguished from such other marks derives from the [[medieval Europe]]an [[#virgule|virgule]] ({{lang-la|virgula}}, {{nowrap|<small>{{abbr|lit|literally}}.</small> "twig"),}} which was used as a [[full stop|period]], [[#scratch|scratch comma]], and [[caesura mark]].<ref name=virg/><ref name=verg/> (The first sense was eventually lost to the [[full stop|low dot]] and the other two developed separately into the [[comma]] {{char|,}} and [[caesura mark]] {{char|{{!}}{{!}}}}) Its use as a comma became especially widespread in [[Kingdom of France|France]], where it was also used to mark the continuation of a word onto the next line of a page, a sense later taken on by the [[hyphen]] {{char|-}}.<ref name=partridge>{{citation |last=Partridge |first=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lN-KAgAAQBAJ |title=You Have a Point There: A Guide to Punctuation and Its Allies |publisher=Hamish Hamilton, republished 2005 by Taylor & Francis |location=London |date=1953 |isbn=0-415-05075-8 |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lN-KAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA155 |contribution=The Virgule (or Virgil) or the Oblique |page=155 f |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303164318/https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=lN-KAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=3 March 2016 }}.</ref> The [[Fraktur]] script used throughout [[Central Europe]] in the [[early modern period]] used a single slash as a scratch comma and a double slash {{char|//}} as a dash. The double slash developed into the [[Double hyphen|double oblique hyphen]] {{char|⸗}} and [[double hyphen]] {{char|＝}} or {{char|゠}} before being usually simplified into [[dash|various single dashes]].
▲In the 18th century, the mark was generally known in English as the "[[#oblique|oblique]]".<ref name=oedobli/> The variant "oblique stroke" was increasingly shortened to "[[#stroke|stroke]]", which became the common British name for the character, although printers and publishing professionals often instead referred to it as an "oblique". In the 19th and early 20th century, it was also widely known as the "[[#shilling|shilling mark]]" or "[[#solidus|solidus]]", from
==Usage==
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