"the druid Getafix is ""Panoramix"" in the original French and ""Miraculix"" in German. Even so, occasionally the wordplay has been preserved: Obelix's dog, known in the original French as ""Idéfix"" (from ""idée fixe"", a ""fixed idea"" or obsession), is called ""Dogmatix"" in English, which not only renders the original meaning strikingly closely (""dogmatic"") but in fact adds another layer of wordplay with the syllable ""Dog-"" at the beginning of the name. The name ""Asterix"", French ""Astérix"", comes from ', meaning ""asterisk"", which is the typographical symbol *""' indicating a footnote, from the Greek word αστήρ (""aster""), meaning a ""star"". His"
"Asterism (typography) In typography, an asterism (""group of stars"") is the typographic symbol consisting of three asterisks placed in a triangle: ⁂. Now rarely used or near-obsolete its purpose is to ""indicate minor breaks in text,"" call attention to a passage, or to separate sub-chapters in a book. It is encoded by Unicode as character . Fonts that provide the Unicode character include Arial Unicode MS, Code2000, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, MS (P)Mincho and Segoe UI. Often, this symbol is replaced with three consecutive asterisks (called a ""dinkus""), more than three asterisks, or three or more dots. Otherwise, an"
"Symbol (typeface) Symbol is one of the four standard fonts available on all PostScript-based printers, starting with Apple's original LaserWriter (1985). It contains a complete unaccented Greek alphabet (upper and lower case) and a selection of commonly used mathematical symbols. Insofar as it fits into any standard classification, it is a serif font designed in the style of Times Roman. Due to its non-standard character set, lack of diacritical characters, and type design inappropriate for continuous text, Symbol cannot easily be used for setting Greek language text, though it has been used for that purpose in the absence of proper"
"Christogram A Christogram (Latin """") is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldest Christograms is the Chi-Rho. It consists of the superimposed Greek letters chi and rho , which are the first two letters of Greek ""Christ"". It was displayed on the ""labarum"" military standard used by Constantine I in AD 312. The IX monogram () is a similar form, using the initials of the name ""Jesus (the) Christ"", as is the ΙΗ monogram (), using the"
"Five-pointed star A five-pointed star (☆), geometrically a regular concave decagon, is a common ideogram in modern culture. Comparatively rare in classical heraldry, it was notably introduced for the flag of the United States in the Flag Act of 1777 and since has become widely used in flags. It has also become a symbol of fame or ""stardom"" in Western culture, among other uses. If the collinear edges are joined together a pentagram is produced. Sopdet, the Egyptian personification of the star Sirius, is always shown with the five-pointed star hieroglyph on her head. The star (or ""mullet"") is comparatively"
"uses, such as lower case epsilon (ε) for an arbitrarily small positive number, lower case pi (π) for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, capital sigma (Σ) for summation, and lower case sigma (σ) for standard deviation. Greek letters are used to denote the brighter stars within each of the eighty-eight constellations. In most constellations, the brightest star is designated Alpha and the next brightest Beta etc. For example, the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus is known as Alpha Centauri. For historical reasons, the Greek designations of some constellations begin with a lower"
"part of the minuscule writing style of Greek from the 9th and 10th centuries onwards. It is based on the lunate form (Ϲ) of the letter sigma. With many other ligatures, it was used to print Greek during the early-modern era. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of ligatures in print gradually diminished. The στ ligature was among the last to go, around the middle of the 19th century. The name, ""stigma"" (), is originally a common Greek noun meaning ""a mark, dot, puncture"", or generally ""a sign"", from the verb (""(I) puncture""); the related but distinct word"
"Big O notation (representing a function's asymptotic growth rate), but has fallen out of favor because omicron is indistinguishable from the Latin letter O and easily confused with the digit zero (0). Omicron is used to designate the fifteenth star in a constellation group, its ordinal placement a function of both magnitude and position. Such stars include Omicron Andromedae, Omicron Ceti, and Omicron Persei. These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style. Omicron Omicron (uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, literally ""small o"":"
"Staurogram The staurogram (⳨), also monogrammatic cross or tau-rho, is a ligature composed of a superposition of the letters tau (Τ) and rho (Ρ). The staurogram was first used to abbreviate ""stauros"" (), the Greek word for cross in very early New Testament manuscripts such as P66, P45 and P75, almost like a nomen sacrum, and may visually have represented Jesus on the cross. The Tau-Rho as a Christian symbol outside its function as nomen sacrum in biblical manuscripts appears from c. the 4th century, used as a ""monogramma Christi"" alongside the Chi-Rho and other variants, spreading to Western Europe"
"not be confused with the similar looking therefore sign——which is composed of three round dots rather than asterisks. Asterism (typography) In typography, an asterism (""group of stars"") is the typographic symbol consisting of three asterisks placed in a triangle: ⁂. Now rarely used or near-obsolete its purpose is to ""indicate minor breaks in text,"" call attention to a passage, or to separate sub-chapters in a book. It is encoded by Unicode as character . Fonts that provide the Unicode character include Arial Unicode MS, Code2000, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, MS (P)Mincho and Segoe UI. Often, this symbol is replaced"
"used to mark the ends of entire works or major sections in poetic and prose texts. Nine ancient Greek textual annotation symbols are included in the supplemental punctuation list of ISO IEC standard 10646 for character sets. Unicode encodes several more signs. The names of the characters Asterix and Obelix in the French comic series ""The Adventures of Asterix"" by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo are derived from the Aristarchian symbols. Aristarchian symbols Two main types of ancient Greek philological annotations can be distinguished: signs and explicit notes. The first philological sign (σημεῖον) invented by the first head of the"
"( or ). Archaic crossed forms of theta are seen in the wheel letters of Linear A and Linear B. The cursive form ϑ was retained by Unicode as U+03D1 ϑ ""GREEK THETA SYMBOL"" (""=script theta""), separate from U+03B8 θ ""GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA"". For the purpose of writing Greek text, the two can be font variants of a single character, but θ and ϑ are also used as distinct symbols in technical and mathematical contexts. In Latin script used for the Gaulish language, theta developed into the ""tau gallicum"", conventionally transliterated as Ð (eth), although the bar extends across"
"Unicode calls it ""small letter open E"". The traditional names of the Latin and Greek letters are used for unmodified symbols. In Unicode, some of the symbols of Greek origin have Latin forms for use in IPA; the others use the symbols from the Greek section. Examples: Note The IPA standard includes some small capital letters, such as , although it is common to refer to these symbols as simply ""capital"" or ""cap"" letters, because the IPA standard does not include any full-size capital letters. A few letters have the forms of cursive or script letters. Examples: Note Ligatures are"
"in Greek). The ""IHS"" Christogram, denoting the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, is usually written as a cypher, but sometimes as a monogram. Perhaps the most significant Christogram is the Chi Rho, formed from the first two letters of Χριστος. Signum manus (sometimes also known as ""Chrismon"") refers to the medieval practice, current from the Merovingian period until the 14th century in the Frankish Empire and its successors, of signing a document or charter with a special type of monogram or royal cypher. Monograms of the names of monarchs are used as part of the insignia"
"the ""great heptagram"" (for {7/3}). The previous one, the regular hexagram {6/2}, is a compound of two triangles. The smallest star polygon is the {5/2} pentagram. The next one is the {8/3} octagram and its related {8/2} star figure (a compound of two squares), followed by the regular enneagram, which also has two forms: {9/2} and {9/4}, as well as one compound of three triangles {9/3}. Bibliography Heptagram A heptagram, septagram, septegram or septogram is a seven-point star drawn with seven straight strokes. The name ""heptagram"" combines a numeral prefix, ""hepta-"", with the Greek suffix ""-gram"". The ""-gram"" suffix derives"
"Tie (typography) The tie is a symbol in the shape of an arc similar to a large breve, used in Greek, phonetic alphabets, and Z notation. It can be used between two characters with spacing as punctuation, or non-spacing as a diacritic. It can be above or below, and reversed. Its forms are called tie, double breve, enotikon or papyrological hyphen, ligature tie, and undertie. The enotikon (, ""enōtikón"", ""uniter""), papyrological hyphen, or Greek hyphen was a low tie mark found in late Classical and Byzantine papyri. In an era when Greek texts were typically written ""scripta continua"", the enotikon"
"Chi Rho The Chi Rho (; also known as ""chrismon"" or ""sigla"") is one of the earliest forms of christogram, formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters—chi and rho (ΧΡ)—of the Greek word (Christos) in such a way that the vertical stroke of the rho intersects the center of the chi. The Chi-Rho symbol was used by the Roman emperor Constantine I (r. 306–337) as part of a military standard (vexillum). Constantine's standard was known as the Labarum. Early symbols similar to the Chi Rho were the Staurogram () and the IX monogram (). In pre-Christian times, the Chi-Rho"
"rare apparition important to pagan beliefs that Christian bishops reinvented as a Christian symbol. The most commonly encountered Christogram in English-speaking countries in modern times is the Χ (or more accurately, the Greek letter chi), representing the first letter of the word ""Christ"", in such abbreviations as ""Xmas"" (for ""Christmas"") and ""Xian"" or ""Xtian"" (for ""Christian""). The Alpha and Omega symbols may at times accompany the Chi-Rho monogram. ""Chrismon"" (""chrismum""; also ""chrismos, chrismus"") since the 17th century has been used as a New Latin term for the Chi Rho monogram. Because the ""chrismon"" was used as a kind of ""invocation"""
"Unicode 7.0 (2014) also in the Ancient Symbols block, at . The Coptic block has a ligature of the full word σταυρός, where the τρ is represented by the staurogram, and two lunate sigmas are attached to either side of the tau's horizontal bar, at . Staurogram The staurogram (⳨), also monogrammatic cross or tau-rho, is a ligature composed of a superposition of the letters tau (Τ) and rho (Ρ). The staurogram was first used to abbreviate ""stauros"" (), the Greek word for cross in very early New Testament manuscripts such as P66, P45 and P75, almost like a nomen"
"Index (typography) The symbol ☞ is a punctuation mark, called an index, manicule (from the Latin root ""manicula"", meaning ""little hand"") or fist. Other names for the symbol include printer's fist, bishop's fist, digit, mutton-fist, hand, hand director, pointer, and pointing hand. The symbol originates in scribal tradition of the medieval and Renaissance period, appearing in the margin of manuscripts to mark corrections or notes. Manicules are first known to appear in the 12th century in handwritten manuscripts in Spain, and became common in the 14th and 15th centuries in Italy with some very elaborate with shading and artful cuffs."
"Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle or star pentagon) is the shape of a five-pointed star. Pentagrams were used symbolically in ancient Greece and Babylonia, and are used today as a symbol of faith by many Wiccans, akin to the use of the cross by Christians and the Star of David by the Jews. The pentagram has magical associations. Many people who practice Neopagan faiths wear jewelry incorporating the symbol. Christians once commonly used the pentagram to represent the five wounds of Jesus. The pentagram has associations with Freemasonry and is also used as a symbol by"
"a Greek letter and the symbol for the constellation of the star was sometimes used instead. The ecliptic was sometimes divided into 12 ""signs"", each subdivided into 30 degrees, and the ""sign"" component of ecliptic longitude was expressed either with a number from 0 to 11 or with the corresponding zodiac symbol. In modern academic usage, all the constellations, including the twelve of the zodiac, have dedicated three-letter abbreviations. The zodiac symbols are also sometimes used to represent points on the ecliptic, particularly the solstices and equinoxes. Each symbol is taken to represent the ""first point"" of each sign. Thus,"
"now shared across the three modern constellations of Carina, Puppis, and Vela so that the same Greek letter is not usually found in more than one of the three. However, ο (omicron) is commonly used for stars in both Vela and Puppis. Some authors contend that Lacaille actually assigned a Latin lower case 'o' to this star, while others suggest that ο Puppis should actually be a lower case 'o'. In the ""Coelum Australe Stelliferum"" itself, this star is labelled ο (omicron) Argus (du Navire in the French edition), while ο Puppis is labelled (Latin) o Argus in puppi (Pouppe"
"separately because of widespread use of font variants (e.g. L vs. ""script L"" vs. ""blackletter L"" vs. ""boldface blackletter L"" ) as distinctive mathematical symbols. It is intended for use only in mathematical or technical notation, not use in non-technical text. Many Greek letters are used as technical symbols. All of the Greek letters are encoded in the Greek section of Unicode but many are encoded a second time under the name of the technical symbol they represent. The ""micro sign"" (U+00B5, µ) is obviously inherited from ISO 8859-1, but the origin of the others is less clear. Other Greek"
"cut motif consisting (as visible) of a letter A and another incomplete character on either side of a large diagonal cross; the whole may represent a common Christian symbol, a Christogram—the Greek alphabet letters Alpha and Omega flanking a large Greek letter Chi (written like a Roman X), the initial of ""Christos"" (Christ). Below this and to the left, but overlapping it slightly, is a smaller, more lightly incised inscription in Latin, reading: . This seems to have been repeated lower down and to the right; only the letters and , on two lines, can be seen on the fragment."
"Star and crescent The star and crescent is an iconographic symbol used in various historical contexts but most well known today as a symbol of the former Ottoman Empire and, by popular extension, the Islamic world. It develops in the iconography of the Hellenistic period (4th–1st centuries BCE) in the Kingdom of Pontus, the Bosporan Kingdom and notably the city of Byzantium by the 2nd century BCE. It is the conjoined representation of the crescent and a star, both of which constituent elements have a long prior history in the iconography of the Ancient Near East as representing either Sun"
"their occurrence in published research and texts on astronomy is relatively infrequent, with some exceptions such as the Sun and Earth symbols appearing in astronomical constants, and certain zodiacal signs used to represent the solstices and equinoxes. Unicode has formally assigned code points to most symbols, mainly in the Miscellaneous Symbols Block and the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs Block. The use of astronomical symbols for the Sun and Moon dates to antiquity. The forms of the symbols that appear in the original papyrus texts of Greek horoscopes are a circle with one ray () for the Sun and a crescent"
"Omicron Omicron (uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, literally ""small o"": όμικρον < ὂ μικρόν - ""ò mikrón"", micron meaning 'small' in contrast to ""omega"") is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 70. This letter is derived from the Phoenician letter ayin . In classical Greek, omicron represented the sound in contrast to ""omega"" and ""ου"" . In modern Greek, omicron represents the . Letters that arose from omicron include Roman O and Cyrillic O. The upper-case letter of omicron (O) was originally used in mathematics as a symbol for"
"or ""algiz"" rune) and the ""rho"" rendered as the p-rune. In the Latin-speaking Christianity of medieval Western Europe (and so among Catholics and many Protestants today), the most common Christogram became ""IHS"" or ""IHC"", denoting the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, ""iota-eta-sigma"", or . The Greek letter ""iota"" is represented by I, and the ""eta"" by H, while the Greek letter ""sigma"" is either in its lunate form, represented by C, or its final form, represented by S. Because the Latin-alphabet letters ""I"" and ""J"" were not systematically distinguished until the 17th century, ""JHS"" and"
"a blazing sun to displace both popular pagan symbols and seals of political factions like the Guelphs and Ghibellines in public spaces (see Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus). The IHS monogram with the H surmounted by a cross above three nails and surrounded by a Sun is the emblem of the Jesuits, according to tradition introduced by Ignatius of Loyola in 1541. English-language interpretations of ""IHS"" have included ""In His Service"". In Eastern Christianity, the most widely used Christogram is a four-letter abbreviation, ΙϹ ΧϹ — a traditional abbreviation of the Greek words for ""Jesus Christ"" (i.e., the"
"Astronomical symbols Astronomical symbols are abstract pictorial symbols used to represent astronomical objects, theoretical constructs and observational events in European astronomy. The earliest forms of these symbols appear in Greek papyrus texts of late antiquity. The Byzantine codices in which many Greek papyrus texts were preserved continued and extended the inventory of astronomical symbols. New symbols were further invented to represent many newly-discovered planets and minor planets discovered in the 18th to the 20th centuries. These symbols were once commonly used by professional astronomers, amateur astronomers, alchemists, and astrologers. While they are still commonly used in almanacs and astrological publications,"
"Micro- Micro- (Greek letter μ or legacy micro symbol µ) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of 10 (one millionth). Confirmed in 1960, the prefix comes from the Greek (""""), meaning ""small"". The symbol for the prefix comes from the Greek letter μ (mu). It is the only SI prefix which uses a character not from the Latin alphabet. ""mc"" is commonly used as a prefix when the character ""μ"" is not available; for example, ""mcg"" commonly denotes a microgram. Also the letter u instead of μ is allowed by one of the ISO documents."
"rendered as or . In the 19th century, the anglicized form ""vau"" was a common name for the symbol ϛ in its numerical function, used by authors who distinguished it both from the alphabetic ""digamma"" and from ϛ as a στ ligature. The name ""digamma"" was used in ancient Greek and is the most common name for the letter in its alphabetic function today. It literally means ""double gamma"" and is descriptive of the original letter's shape. The name ""episēmon"" was used for the numeral symbol during the Byzantine era and is still sometimes used today, either as a name"