Wordie: Tilde: Comments

Comment by whichbe, 3 months ago

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:03:40 +0000

also known as the 'swung dash'.

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:41:38 +0000

It's searchable online, but I believe you have to be a subscriber to use it. My employer is a subscriber and I use it frequently at work.

They do have an RSS feed (or is that redundant?) for a Word of the Day, which I've never used but it seems like it would be fun. Maybe I'll try it.

Comment by uselessness, about 1 year ago

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:14:55 +0000

I stand corrected. I need to pick up the OED. Or is it searchable online?

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:06:30 +0000

I've always pronounced it "tildeh," or "tild-uh," as seanahan listed it. I have only ever known it as the symbol inkhorn cited so I can't speak to that usage, though OED lists its secondary meaning as "a symbol in Math. and Logic, chiefly to indicate negation."

Comment by seanahan, about 1 year ago

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 10:56:36 +0000

Twiddle is a thing used in math. I've heard the pronunciations "tild", "tildee", and "tild-uh". I can't remember where I saw ~= used to be not equals, so I'll have to track it down. I've also seen ~ used to be about equals.

Comment by uselessness, about 1 year ago

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 23:52:09 +0000

I always thought that use meant approximately, not not. Handwritten on paper you'd see one tilde drawn above another, to make a squiggly equals sign. It's the visual cue for for "fuzzy" equality, used when the answer is close to a given value but probably not exactly that value. Just like the analog counterpart to != is an equals sign with a slash through it, evoking a "no parking" symbol to nullify the operator. Then again, we all tend to draw symbols differently, and maybe use different visual cues; so I'm not saying you're wrong. I just haven't seen that before.

By the way, let's set the record straight... is it pronounced "tild" or "tildee?" Or "twiddle," which is another thing I've never seen before?

Comment by seanahan, about 1 year ago

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 11:16:01 +0000

This symbol is used in various places as a "not" symbol, sometimes pronounced as "twiddle", with "~=" akin to "!=".

For a history of the tilde...

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 08:37:19 +0000

There's a cool article I happened to find and have no affiliation with whatsoever. http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/10/04/history_of_the_tilde

Comment by inkhorn, about 1 year ago

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:54:47 +0000

Tilde Accent: jalapeño