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Comment by mroche

21 hours ago

> super-comma

This is the first time I've ever heard the character ";" referred to as such. It's always been "semi-colon" to me, is this a region/culture difference?

I'm not saying you're wrong, I find it interesting.

no it's always been semicolon, the "super-comma" comes from describing how to use it. "It's similar to a comma but like a super comma."

  • Huh? I've always understood that the clause after the semicolon is peripheral; the meaning of the whole sentence does not change without it.

same character, used differently?

i call it a super comma when its separating a list with commas within the sets.

so if i am listing colors like green, blue, red; foods like apple, orange, strawberry; and seasons like winter, summer, fall.

it's one use case for an em-dash, because whatever you have inside it has commas in the phrase.

square and rectangle situation. a supercomma is a subset of semicolon.

> super-comma

I would have assumed it's a synonym for apostrophe. super-comma <-> upper-comma, with super meaning upper, like in superscript.

  • I think of it as supersedes the comma in the order of operations. You work inward, or outward (depending which way you read the list.)