Fancily called the virgule, solidus, diagonal or separatrix, the oblique stroke – or, more commonly, ‘slash’ – traditionally has three main uses:
- To indicate options – as in “He/she will know what to do” and “This plant needs watering and/or re-potting”
- To separate lines of verse (although less so these days)
- To abbreviate phrases such as ‘care of’ (c/o), ‘week commencing’ (w/c) and ‘kilometres per hour’ (km/hr)
I hope that’s proved interesting/helpful.
Look out for assistance with asterisks in our grammar and punctuation spot next week!
