Do You Interrobang?

If you are like me, then your initial reaction upon reading the title of this article was "Huh? What's an interrobang?" I was browsing news headlines this week when an article about a "new" punctuation mark caught my eye; what editor could possibly resist? I clicked on the link and began reading. As I read, my responses shifted from mild shock ("A new punctuation mark? How have I never heard of this?") to fear ("Great Scott! What other punctuation marks am I missing?") and, ultimately, to skepticism ("Wait a minute; is this for real?").

Intrigued, I decided to do an online search to try to answer that question, and came up with more than 200,000 hits! At that moment, I realized two things: One, that more than 200,000 people already knew about this punctuation mark, which placed me squarely out of the loop; and two, that I would have to limit my research to solely credible sources. Here is what I discovered:

What exactly is an interrobang? According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, it is "a punctuation mark designed for use esp. at the end of an exclamatory rhetorical question"; for example, "Are you kidding me?!" In appearance, the interrobang is a question mark superimposed over an exclamation point, rather than two separate punctuation marks placed side by side.

I also learned in my research that, apparently, the interrobang is not a "new" punctuation mark. The New York Times gives credit for the interrobang's 1962 creation to Martin K. Speckter, president of an advertising agency. According to multiple sources, Speckter thought ads would "be more effective if copywriters provided surprised rhetorical questions using one mark instead of two [a combined exclamation point and question mark rather than two separate marks]." The name interrobang is taken from the Latin interrogatio, a rhetorical question, and the word bang, which is (again according to Merriam-Webster's) "printers' slang for exclamation point."

"Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle," I thought to myself. If it's in Merriam-Webster's and in The New York Times, then it must be so. Being a practical creature by nature, I immediately started wondering, since the mark was evidently older than I had realized, how one could access that mark today.

The Web site www.interrobang-mks.com said that American Type Founders had actually created a metal typeface in 1966 that included the interrobang, and that Remington Rand's 1968 typewriters also included an interrobang key, but where could you find it now? According, again, to www.interrobang-mks.com, in Microsoft Word, go to Format, choose Fonts, then select Wingdings 2. Simply hitting the ]} key then in that font will get you a lovely little interrobang; I tested it myself. As for the Mac, most sites I looked at just mentioned that there are more than a dozen installed fonts that already contain the interrobang, so all you Macs out there will just have to look for it (sorry, I'm a PC.)

So - it's real, and you can find it, but the final question is should you? Well, I wanted to run it through one more venerable institution, so I submitted it to The Chicago Manual of Style online:

"Dear Chicago Q&A,
I read an article yesterday referencing a specific punctuation mark called an "interrobang". Apparently, it is an exclamation point transposed over a question mark, and it is intended to convey an emotional reaction on an author's part similar to when one says aloud, "What the [expletive]?!"; coincidentally, this was also my reaction when I read the article about it. I am planning on writing my own article about this, and I was wondering (after having done a search on your site and come up empty) what might be the CMS take, on this strange little mark? "

Their response?

"In formal writing, we allow both marks only in the event that the author was being physically assaulted while writing. Otherwise, no."

Well, what did you expect?!