The Forgotten Punctuation Mark We Need To Bring Back

While many people use emojis to convey different emotions over text, there are some old-school punctuation habits that serve the same purpose. For example, you might end a text with a simple “?!” to express a mix of excitement and confusion, or add a seemingly endless string of “?!?!?!?!?!?” to really exaggerate your feelings. These alternating symbols are used all the time to convey the disbelief associated with question marks plus the enthusiasm that comes with exclamation points. But there used to be a single punctuation mark that served the same purpose, designed to look like a question mark and exclamation point combined into one. This symbol — ‽ — is the interrobang.

This punctuation mark was proposed by advertising executive Martin Speckter,  who initially intended the symbol be applied solely to rhetorical questions. He thought it was the perfect punctuation for excitedly incredulous phrases such as “You did what‽” 

Speckter, an editor of the typography magazine TYPEtalks, suggested the mark in a March 1962 article, and the concept was subsequently praised in an article from the New York Herald Tribune. Unfortunately that piece ran on April 1, 1962, and many readers thought the serious suggestion was an April Fools’ joke. 

Speckter devised the name “interrobang” as a portmanteau, combining “interrogation point” — a technical term for a question mark — with “bang,” slang used by printers and proofreaders for an exclamation point. He also solicited reader suggestions for the punctuation mark’s name, including “emphaquest” (an emphatic question), “interropoint” (similar to interrobang), and “exclarogative” (an exclaimed interrogative). But none of those terms stuck around quite like “interrobang.”

The interrobang had a few influential supporters in its early years. The company American Type Founders, for one, released a typeface in 1966 called Americana, which included the interrobang as standard among more familiar punctuation. And in 1968, typewriter manufacturer Remington offered the option to upgrade its newest line of typewriters to include an interrobang key. But in general, the interrobang failed to catch on with a widespread audience, and thus largely faded into obscurity.

But we believe that Speckter was onto something and there are plenty of uses for the interrobang in modern writing. Many grammar blogs note that there are three main uses for the symbol, one of which is to emphasize any rhetorical questions, as Speckter initially intended. Another purpose of the interrobang is to add excitement to a question such as, “You passed the bar exam‽” You can also use interrobangs to convey a strong sense of emotion, as in, “Did he really say that about his own brother‽”

Writing an interrobang by hand is easy, as you simply draw a curved question mark and a straight exclamation point over the same dot. But typing one on your laptop or mobile device isn’t so simple and often requires additional steps that may prove to be too much of a hassle. That said, if you’re using Google Docs, click “Insert” > “Symbols” > “Special Characters” and search for the interrobang. If typing on an Apple keyboard, click the control, command, and space bar keys at the same time to open Character Palette, and search for the interrobang in the text bar. There are ways to find it when using other services, too, though you may need to do a little bit of digging.