2973: Chevron and Goats Feb 10, 2025

Have you ever looked at this symbol ^ or a pair of these < > and thought, “wow, that sure looks like a goat!”? Probably not, but the name of that shape is a chevron, from the Latin ‘caper’ meaning ‘goat’, and among other things related to ‘chevon’ (goat-meat). Admittedly, this punctuation wasn’t named for goats directly, but the Old French ‘chevron’ denoted the rafters of a sloped roof which were said to look like goat horns. The chevron is not only in punctuation, but refers to anything of that shape, such as frequently in heraldry. 

These < >, or more specifically these « » were the original quotation marks before the printing press, and still are in many places. They are not known in French as a ‘chevron’ though, despite it being a French word, but rather as a Guillemet, named after the man Guillaume Le Bé who invented them for use in printing presses.