The rhetorical question mark or Perconta-

tion point was invented by Henry Denham

in the 1580s and was used at the end of a
rhetorical question.
Although its use died out in the 17th cen-
tury, the mark used then is most commonly
used today.
T
h
e

P
e
r
c
o
n
tation Poin
t
Henry Denham invents
the Percontation Point
1580s





T
h
e
I
rony Mark
Marcellin Jobard, a Belgian newspaper pub-
lisher introduced an irony mark in the shape of
an oversize arrow head with small stem (rather
like an ideogram of a Christmas Tree) in 1841.
The irony point (French: point dironie) was
proposed by the French poet Alcanter de
Brahm (alias Marcel Bernhardt) in his 1899
book Lostensoir des ironies to indicate that
a sentence should be understood at a second
level (irony, sarcasm, etc.). It is illustrated by a
glyph resembling but not identical to a small,
elevated, backward-facing question mark

1841
Marcellin Jobard
introduces Irony Mark
Herv Bazin in his 1966 essay Plumons lOi-
seau ("Let's pluck the bird"), used the Greek let-
ter psi with a dot below for the same purpose.
1899
Alcanter de Brahm
proposes irony point in
Lostensoir des ironies
Marcellin Jobard
introduces Irony Mark
1966
OR

Similar Punctuation
Known as the Snark Mark
Used to indicate a snarky meaning.
Known as the sarcMark
Used to indicate sarcasm.
A more modern mark for Irony.
Created by the Collective Promotion
for the Dutch Book.