1 February 2013

interrobang

[in-ter-uh-bang]

noun

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, surprise or shock, as after a rhetorical question.

Also, interabang.

Origin:
1965–70, Americanism; interro(gation point) + bang1 , printers’ slang for an exclamation point

Today’s aphorism

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.

– Alfred Hitchcock

On this day

1 February 1979 – After 14 years in exile, the Ayatollah Khomeini returns to a hero’s welcome in Tehran in which 5 million people welcomed him. He led a revolutionary army that overthrew the Shah of Iran.

1 February 1992 – the Cold War ends when US President George H.W. Bush and Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin issue a joint statement declaring an end to the decades long ‘war’.