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You know that little symbol..?
I'm looking for the name of the symbol comprised of a red circle with a diagonal line through it, the "universal not"; or, in its more vulgar usage, the "Ghostbuster" symbol; or, as my partner here at the office calls it, "the buster symbol."
I'm looking because I'm writing documentation for a web app that I'm writing that uses it on several buttons, and, if it can be avoided at all, I'd rather not call it, "the buster symbol".
In my searchings, I found a rather entertaining blog entry from BlogSpot, reprinted completely without permission here, since it's a couple years old and like as not to vanish.
On the main thoroughfare near my house, they were installing a new street sign today. It had a picture of a truck with a red circle around it and a red line through it. The “red circle with a line through it” has become an almost universal symbol for “no”, “not”, “don’t”, or in certain parts of New York City, “foh geduhbot id”. I can't imagine anyone who doesn't recognize it as the symbol for negation. It seems like something that is as well known as this symbol should have a well-known name. It made me curious about whether of not the symbol (circle with a line inside it) even had a name. There is, of course, a symbol in math that I think is called a null, but that has a line that extends beyond the area of the circle. I mean, think about it, we gave the ampersand its own name. (I cannot imagine who gave the umlaut its name.)
I tried several search engines and a couple of encyclopedias and couldn’t find an actual name for the symbol itself. It may have a name already, but I was unable to find one.
Just in case no one has bothered to name it yet, I decided to stake my claim and would like to propose that we call the symbol a circumnegate.
Circumnegate (pronounced: ser kuhm NEH gate) [From the Latin, circum (around) and nega-t (to deny, root of the word, negate)] can be used as either a noun for the symbol itself or as a verb in using the symbol as in “to circumnegate”. The process of using it is called circumnegation. The symbol that it is placed over is the circumnegatee and is said to be circumnegated. Someone who uses the symbol casually is a circumnegator. Someone who uses the symbol professionally is a circumnegationist. The place where it is used routinely is a circumnegatorium. If used systemically, the area can be said to be circumnegatized. A scholar who studies them is a circumnegatologist who teaches circumnegatology. (see “On the *ologies” posted here on October 9th, 2005) Someone who proposes a system of government based on the use of the symbol is a circumnegatarianismist. Those who are fond of abbreviations and acronyms have my permission to simply refer to them as CN’s.
If you happen to see the word, circumnegate, in the next edition of Webster’s Dictionary; just remember that you saw it here first.
Hey, it beats the heck out of "umlaut".
http://hcaldwell.blogspot.com/2005/11/on-circle-with-line-through-it.html
Late Edit: I copped out. Instead of calling it something, I just put the icon in the middle of the sentence.
I'm looking because I'm writing documentation for a web app that I'm writing that uses it on several buttons, and, if it can be avoided at all, I'd rather not call it, "the buster symbol".
In my searchings, I found a rather entertaining blog entry from BlogSpot, reprinted completely without permission here, since it's a couple years old and like as not to vanish.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
On the circle with a line through it
On the main thoroughfare near my house, they were installing a new street sign today. It had a picture of a truck with a red circle around it and a red line through it. The “red circle with a line through it” has become an almost universal symbol for “no”, “not”, “don’t”, or in certain parts of New York City, “foh geduhbot id”. I can't imagine anyone who doesn't recognize it as the symbol for negation. It seems like something that is as well known as this symbol should have a well-known name. It made me curious about whether of not the symbol (circle with a line inside it) even had a name. There is, of course, a symbol in math that I think is called a null, but that has a line that extends beyond the area of the circle. I mean, think about it, we gave the ampersand its own name. (I cannot imagine who gave the umlaut its name.)
I tried several search engines and a couple of encyclopedias and couldn’t find an actual name for the symbol itself. It may have a name already, but I was unable to find one.
Just in case no one has bothered to name it yet, I decided to stake my claim and would like to propose that we call the symbol a circumnegate.
Circumnegate (pronounced: ser kuhm NEH gate) [From the Latin, circum (around) and nega-t (to deny, root of the word, negate)] can be used as either a noun for the symbol itself or as a verb in using the symbol as in “to circumnegate”. The process of using it is called circumnegation. The symbol that it is placed over is the circumnegatee and is said to be circumnegated. Someone who uses the symbol casually is a circumnegator. Someone who uses the symbol professionally is a circumnegationist. The place where it is used routinely is a circumnegatorium. If used systemically, the area can be said to be circumnegatized. A scholar who studies them is a circumnegatologist who teaches circumnegatology. (see “On the *ologies” posted here on October 9th, 2005) Someone who proposes a system of government based on the use of the symbol is a circumnegatarianismist. Those who are fond of abbreviations and acronyms have my permission to simply refer to them as CN’s.
If you happen to see the word, circumnegate, in the next edition of Webster’s Dictionary; just remember that you saw it here first.
Hey, it beats the heck out of "umlaut".
http://hcaldwell.blogspot.com/2005/11/on-circle-with-line-through-it.html
Late Edit: I copped out. Instead of calling it something, I just put the icon in the middle of the sentence.