Asterisk

؋ ​₳ ​฿ ​₿ ​₵ ​¢ ​₡ ​₢ ​$ ​₫ ​₯ ​֏ ​₠ ​€ ​ƒ ​₣ ​₲ ​₴ ​₭ ​₺ ​₾ ​₼ ​ℳ ​₥ ​₦ ​₧ ​₱ ​₰ ​£ ​元 圆 圓 ​﷼ ​៛ ​₽ ​₹ ₨ ​₪ ​৳ ​₸ ​₮ ​₩ ​¥ ​円An asterisk (*); from Late Latin asteriscus, from Ancient Greek ἀστερίσκος, asteriskos, 'little star', is a typographical symbol or glyph. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star. An asterisk (*); from Late Latin asteriscus, from Ancient Greek ἀστερίσκος, asteriskos, 'little star', is a typographical symbol or glyph. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as star (as, for example, in the A* search algorithm or C*-algebra). In English, an asterisk is usually five-pointed in sans-serif typefaces, six-pointed in serif typefaces, and six- or eight-pointed when handwritten. It is often used to censor offensive words, and on the Internet, to indicate a correction to a previous message. In computer science, the asterisk is commonly used as a wildcard character, or to denote pointers, repetition, or multiplication. The asterisk has already been used as a symbol in ice age cave paintings.There is also a two thousand year old character used by Aristarchus of Samothrace called the asteriskos, ※, which he used when proofreading Homeric poetry to mark lines that were duplicated. Origen is known to have also used the asteriskos to mark missing Hebrew lines from his Hexapla. The asterisk evolved in shape over time, but its meaning as a symbol used to correct defects remained. In the Middle Ages, the asterisk was used to emphasize a particular part of text, often linking those parts of the text to a marginal comment. However, an asterisk was not always used. One hypothesis to the origin of the asterisk is that it stems from the five thousand year old Sumerian character dingir, ?, though this hypothesis seems to only be based on visual appearance. When toning down expletives, asterisks are often used to replace letters. For example, the word 'fuck' might become 'f**k', 'f*ck' or even '****'. Vowels tend to be censored with an asterisk more than consonants, but the intelligibility of censored profanities with multiple syllables such as 'b*ll*cks' (bollocks) or uncommon ones is higher if put in context with surrounding text. In colloquial usage, an asterisk is used to indicate that a record is somehow tainted by circumstances, which are putatively explained in a footnote referenced by the asterisk. The usage of the term in sports arose after the 1961 baseball season in which Roger Maris of the New York Yankees broke Babe Ruth's 34-year-old single-season home run record. Because Ruth had amassed 60 home runs in a season with only 154 games, compared to Maris's 61 over 162 games, baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced that Maris's accomplishment would be recorded in the record books with an explanation (often referred to as 'an asterisk' in the retelling).