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[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Exclamation_2.jpg|right|frame]]
==Origin==
French exclamer, < [[Latin]] ''exclāmāre'' to call out, < ex- out + clāmāre to call, shout.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_century 1566]
==Definitions==
*1: to [[cry]] out or [[speak]] in [[strong]] or sudden [[emotion]] <exclaimed in delight>
*2: to [[speak]] loudly or vehemently <exclaimed against immorality>
==Description==
The '''exclamation''' mark, exclamation point, or bang (!) is a [[punctuation]] mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate [[strong]] [[feelings]] or high volume (shouting), and often marks the end of a sentence. Example: “Watch out!” The character is encoded in Unicode at U+0021 ! exclamation point (33decimal, HTML: ! ). This punctuation mark is called, in the newspaper world, "a screamer, a gasper, a startler or ... a dog's cock".
==History==
The '''exclamation''' mark comes from the term “note of admiration”, in which admiration referred to its [[Latin]] sense of [[wonderment]]. One [[theory]] of its [[origin]] is that it was [[originally]] the [[Latin]] [[word]] for “[[joy]]” (Io), written with the “I” written above the “o”.
The exclamation mark was introduced into [[English]] printing in the 15th century, and was called the “sign of admiration or exclamation” or the “note of admiration” until the mid-17th century. In German orthography, the sign made its first appearance in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Bible Luther Bible] in 1797.
The mark was not featured on standard manual typewriters before the 1970s. Instead, one typed a period, backspaced, and then typed an apostrophe.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation_mark]
[[Category: Languages and Literature]]