The pilcrow is a typographic character largely unknown to the general public, though it may look vaguely familiar. This venerable glyph marks the beginning of a new paragraph, and is present, though unseen, in modern page layout programs, unless “show invisible characters” is selected in the type menu (though, even then, the discreet pilcrow does not print).
The development of this symbol is not clear and the colorful etymology offered by Hoefler & Frere-Jones is oft-repeated, but not convincing.
Mediaeval scribes used these marks in much the same way we use them today, as a separation between groups of related sentences. Once the convention of extra leading (space between horizontal lines of type) was introduced, the pilcrow fell into use mainly as a proofreader’s mark, meaning “insert paragraph break.”
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