Full stop

In punctuation, the full stop (Commonwealth English) or period (American English) is a punctuation mark placed at the end of a sentence. The full stop glyph is sometimes called a baseline dot because, typographically, it is a dot on the baseline. This term distinguishes the baseline dot from the interpunct (a raised dot).

The full stop glyph is also used for other purposes. It is often placed after an initial letter used to stand for a name, and sometimes placed after each individual letter in an initialism (for example, "U.S.A."; see Acronym#Punctuation). It also has multiple contexts in mathematics and computing, where it may be called dot or point (short for decimal point).

History

The full stop symbol derives from the Greek punctuation introduced by Aristophanes of Byzantium in the 3rd century BC. In his system, there were a series of dots whose placement determined their meaning. The full stop at the end of a completed thought or expression was marked by a high dot ⟨˙⟩, called the stigmḕ teleía (στιγμὴ τελεία) or "terminal dot". The "middle dot" ⟨·⟩, the stigmḕ mésē (στιγμὴ μέση), marked a division in a thought occasioning a longer breath (essentially a semicolon) and the low dot ⟨.⟩, called the hypostigmḕ (ὑποστιγμή) or "underdot", marked a division in a thought occasioning a shorter breath (essentially a comma). In practice, scribes mostly employed the full stop; the others fell out of use and were later replaced by other symbols. From the 9th century, the full stop began appearing as a low mark instead of a high one; by the advent of printing in Western Europe, the low mark was regular and then universal.

Full stop (disambiguation)

Full stop can refer to:

See also

Full Stop (album)

Full Stop is an experimental electro/folk album released in 2000 by Annabelle Chvostek. It attained a #7 position on college radio charts in Canada after a limited release in 2000 of 150 copies.

Track listing

External links

Little 15

"Little 15" is a Depeche Mode single, released on 16 May 1988, and the fourth single from the album Music for the Masses.

The song was never intended to be a single; in fact, it barely made it onto the album, but a French record label wanted to release the song as a single, which became a popular import and a minor hit in the UK, reaching #60 on the UK Singles Chart (to date the second lowest UK singles placing for the band).

The song's title, as well as its status as a minor release, contributed to its special catalog number "LITTLE15". In this vein, it can be seen as a "little" release between BONG15 ("Behind the Wheel") and BONG16 ("Everything Counts [Live]"). Ironically, "Little 15" didn't chart in France, but finally was also released as a single in other countries becoming a success: in West Germany, where it hit #16, in Austria where it reached #25 and in Switzerland where it entered the Top 20 at #18.

There was no remix of the song at the time of release (the 12" and 7" versions were the same); however, there are two piano instrumental B-sides, both performed by Alan Wilder. The first is "Stjärna" (mislabelled "St. Jarna"), which is Swedish for 'star', written by Martin Gore. The 12" B-side also contains a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata #14." According to his website, Wilder did not intend for it to be a B-side, as he was merely performing it for fun, but Gore stealthily recorded it. Wilder did not perform the song perfectly (his error occurs near the end of the song).