Editor's Corner

Good morning to my fellow word lovers!

Recently, Donna wrote an article about the typographic mark the pilcrow. While I was reading and clicking through her exposé, I was excited to find another unusual typographic mark that I must share with you: the manicule. Nope, not a manicure, though they are both related to hands. The manicule is a mark that looks like a hand and is used to call your attention to something in the text.

Here are a few examples, though if you check Wikipedia, it will provide you with the Unicode for a variety of manicules and pictures of their modern emoji siblings.

The word manicule comes from the Latin root manicula, meaning "little hand," though it has been called other things through history, my favorite terms being “pointer,” “hand director,” and “bishop’s fist.”

The manicule, like the pilcrow, has been around since the medieval and Renaissance times on manuscripts. The purpose was to point out corrections or notes to the scribes. Here is a true “old school” example from the 15th century, resembling a monk with hotdog fingers:

As handwritten texts gave way to the printing press, you might think that the manicules would be removed, since editing notes and comments weren’t printed in books, but people loved manicules! They remained in books as decorative elements, particularly on title pages.

The manicule heyday was in the 19th century, when they were used on signs, in advertisements, and on mail marked “Return to Sender” from the post office. Manicules were everywhere. During my short stint as a sign maker, we used 19th century graphics for all of our retro advertising and signs (think Trader Joe’s), and manicules were de rigueur.

Some might say their overuse in the 1800s led to their demise, but as I mentioned above, you see a lot of hand emojis flying around today. Their use, however, for pointing out additions, errors, or other edits in text has disappeared.

Maybe the next time I hand edit something, or put a note somewhere, I will reintroduce the manicule! It may look like a blob, but it will keep the conversation going with the writer!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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