In the written press, on the pages of a book or in an advertising brochure, we find all kinds of typographic signs, such as quotation marks, square brackets, hyphen, slash, ellipsis or asterisk. The latter has a shape similar to a star (*). In fact, the word comes from the Greek word asteriskos and literally means "little star".
In written language
This sign is used to inform the reader about a specific matter. Thus, next to a word the asterisk appears in parentheses and in this way the reader knows that at the end of the text there will be an informative note with said sign accompanied by a specific clarification. If in a text there is more than one clarification at the foot of the page, it is not advisable to use this sign and use a numbering in parentheses.
- Sometimes this symbol is used before a word to indicate that it is misspelled (for example, “* There were more than 100 victims in the accident”).
- Also, three asterisks are used accompanied by a word when you want to avoid the use of bad language ("I was very angry and told everyone to go c ***").
- In the sacred texts they are used to separate the psalms from the verses or to specify that in the prayer it is necessary to pause for the recitation to be carried out correctly.
- In the field of linguistics it is used to indicate that a word has evolved over time.
- Finally, in some dictionaries it appears before a date or a place name (* Madrid 1950 means that the person mentioned was born in this city).
From a historical point of view
Cuneiform writing carried out on a clay tablet was the first medium in which messages written with phonetic symbols began to be written. To complement the letters of the alphabet it was necessary to incorporate some specific signs.
The Greek philologists of the Alexandrian period were the ones who used the sign of the little star to communicate a correction in the classical texts. The asterisk and the set of typographic signs began to spread widely after the creation of the printing press in the 15th century.
In other contexts of communication
- On telephones on both sides of zero there are two signs: on the left * and on the right the pound sign (#).
- In some electronic forms this sign is used and with it it is indicated that a section must be completed in a mandatory way.
- In computing it is used as a reference or multiplication operator.
- In the language of mathematics, it is used to communicate that it must be multiplied.
Fotolia photos: gestioneber / mracka70
