5 ms·

In 2001, a blogger named Tara Liloia wrote that sarcastic sentences should be ended with a tilde (~) Oh, how far you have fallen, tilde.

by lainga 8y ago

autokad 8y ago
i use it to denote a lasting sound. like heeey = hey~
- Jedd 8y ago
  > i use it to denote a lasting sound. like heeey = hey~ I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. Anyway, it has a legitimate meaning already, so this usage may confuse your reader(s). It's probably faster to type heeey anyway. ; )
mindcrime 8y ago
It only just now occurred to me that I have absolutely no idea what the tilde was originally for. I only know it as a shortcut for "user's home dir". I'm sure it must have had some kind of pre-computer use, but I can't even imagine what it might have been. I guess I could check Wikipedia, but I almost don't want to know. Like, finding out would take some of the mystery out of the world‽
- ghaff 8y ago
  There's a long history as both an accent and a standalone mark. In English, it basically means approximately especially in the context of numbers--a meaning that carries over into certain technical uses as well.
- Doxin 8y ago
  My wild guess would be that it started as a composition character on typewriters to write things such as ã. For those unfamiliar with how accents work on a typewriter: There'd be a couple special accent marks such as ~ and ` and whatnot that'd put down their accent but not advance the carriage. You could then hit a letter to get e.g. à or ē. It's a pretty clever system to prevent having to have a key for every accent.
  - lainga 8y ago
    Oh. Now I get why some fonts hoist the tilde up high.
Jedd 8y ago
I frequently use the ~ in front of numbers or words to denote some fuzziness about their accuracy. It's a tremendously handy symbol for this purpose, as it otherwise requires a lot more thought or typing to get across a similar meaning (eg. even one or two 'approximately's or 'roughly's will rapidly reduce readability). Denoting sarcasm would be a retrograde step -- part of the thrill & delight of being sarcastic is that the target is oblivious to it. One worry would be that accidentally inserting a single character (which already has a well understood meaning for the literate amongst us) becomes quite a big risk if it changes the entire tone of the preceding sentence / paragraph / thought. Plus of course there's the risk of rapidly escalating double-bluffs. Would ~~ be unsarcastic, or doubleplussarcastic?
- duxup 8y ago
  I will do that as well.

In 2001, a blogger named Tara Liloia wrote that sarcastic sentences should be ended with a tilde (~) Oh, how far you have fallen, tilde.

by lainga 8y ago

In 2001, a blogger named Tara Liloia wrote that sarcastic sentences should be ended with a tilde (~) Oh, how far you have fallen, tilde.

autokad 8y ago

i use it to denote a lasting sound. like heeey = hey~

Jedd 8y ago
> i use it to denote a lasting sound. like heeey = hey~ I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. Anyway, it has a legitimate meaning already, so this usage may confuse your reader(s). It's probably faster to type heeey anyway. ; )

mindcrime 8y ago

It only just now occurred to me that I have absolutely no idea what the tilde was originally for. I only know it as a shortcut for "user's home dir". I'm sure it must have had some kind of pre-computer use, but I can't even imagine what it might have been. I guess I could check Wikipedia, but I almost don't want to know. Like, finding out would take some of the mystery out of the world‽

ghaff 8y ago
There's a long history as both an accent and a standalone mark. In English, it basically means approximately especially in the context of numbers--a meaning that carries over into certain technical uses as well.
Doxin 8y ago
My wild guess would be that it started as a composition character on typewriters to write things such as ã. For those unfamiliar with how accents work on a typewriter: There'd be a couple special accent marks such as ~ and ` and whatnot that'd put down their accent but not advance the carriage. You could then hit a letter to get e.g. à or ē. It's a pretty clever system to prevent having to have a key for every accent.
- lainga 8y ago
  Oh. Now I get why some fonts hoist the tilde up high.

Jedd 8y ago

I frequently use the ~ in front of numbers or words to denote some fuzziness about their accuracy. It's a tremendously handy symbol for this purpose, as it otherwise requires a lot more thought or typing to get across a similar meaning (eg. even one or two 'approximately's or 'roughly's will rapidly reduce readability). Denoting sarcasm would be a retrograde step -- part of the thrill & delight of being sarcastic is that the target is oblivious to it. One worry would be that accidentally inserting a single character (which already has a well understood meaning for the literate amongst us) becomes quite a big risk if it changes the entire tone of the preceding sentence / paragraph / thought. Plus of course there's the risk of rapidly escalating double-bluffs. Would ~~ be unsarcastic, or doubleplussarcastic?

duxup 8y ago
I will do that as well.