The ditto mark is a shorthand sign, used mostly in hand-written text, indicating that the words or figures above it are to be repeated.[1][2]
The mark is made using "a pair of apostrophes";[1] "a pair of marks " used underneath a word";[3] the symbol " (quotation mark);[2][4] or the symbol ” (right double quotation mark).[5]
In the following example, the second line reads "Blue pens, box of twenty".
Black pens, box of twenty ... $2.10
Blue " " " " ... $2.35
History
Ditto marks date to cuneiform tablets.
Early evidence of ditto marks can be seen on a cuneiform tablet of the Neo-Assyrian period (934–608 BCE) where two vertical marks are used in a table of synonyms to repeat text.[6]
Bronzeware script, c. 825 BCE, showing "子𠄠孫𠄠寶用", where the small 𠄠 ("two") is used as iteration marks in the phrase "子子孫孫寶用" ("descendants to use and to treasure").
In China the corresponding historical mark was two horizontal lines 𠄠 (Unicode U+16FE3𖿣OLD CHINESE ITERATION MARK), which is also the ancient ideograph of "two", similar to the modern ideograph 二. It is found in bronze script from the Zhou dynasty, as in the example at right (c. 825 BCE). In seal script form this became 〻, and is now written as 々; see iteration mark.
The word ditto comes from the Tuscan language,[7] where it is the past participle of the verb dire (to say), with the meaning of "said", as in the locution "the said story". The first recorded use of ditto with this meaning in English occurs in 1625.[7]
In English, the abbreviation "do.", usually italicised, has sometimes been used instead of ditto marks.
An advertisement from 1833. The second item on the list can be read as "Prime American Pork, in barrels", but the third and fourth are ambiguous as to the origin of the meat. The repetition indicator used is "do." (Perth Gazette)
Other languages
For Chinese, Japanese and Korean, there is the specific Unicode character U+3003〃DITTO MARK in the range CJK Symbols and Punctuation. This facilitates the setting of both marks on a single horizontal line in Asian vertical text.
Other languages may use equivalent symbols. For example, in Norwegian and Swedish handwriting, a version using horizontal lines to indicate the span of the cell in a table where an entry repeats is sometimes seen (––〃––).[8] In French, it is called a guillemet itératif, but the actual symbol used may vary: » is used in Quebec, while in France ― is preferred.[9]
See also
Dittography – Accidental, erroneous act of repeating a letter, word, phrase, or letters by a scribe
Ibid. – Latin footnote or endnote term referring to the previous source
Iteration mark – Character or punctuation mark used to represent a duplicated character or word
References
^ abDitto mark. Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2021. A symbol formed from two apostrophes (〃) representing 'ditto'.
^ ab"Ditto mark". Collins Dictionaries. Retrieved 30 December 2019. two small marks (") placed under something to indicate that it is to be repeated
^"Ditto". Cambridge Dictionaries. Retrieved 30 December 2019. but the Cambridge Dictionary of Business English on the same page uses the CJK ditto mark 〃
^Angus Stevenson; Maurice Waite, eds. (18 August 2011). The Concise Oxford Dictionary. OUP Oxford. ISBN9780199601110.
