guillemet

English

WOTD – 26 September 2009

Etymology

From French guillemet, diminutive form of the name Guillaume (“William”), named after French typecutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–1598) who supposedly invented the marks.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɡiˈmeɪ/, /ˌɡi.(j)əˈmeɪ/, /ˈɡɪl.əˌmɛt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

guillemet (plural guillemets)

1. Either of the punctuation marks « or », used in several languages to indicate passages of speech. Similar to typical quotation marks used in the English language, such as “ and ”.
   • 2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 49:

     Guillemets, however, proved popular and remain the key method of indicating quotations in French, Arabic, Italian, Greek and many other languages.

Synonyms

• angle quote
• chevron (typography)
• duckfoot quote
• double angle quotation mark (Unicode name)

Translations

either of the punctuation marks « or »

• Armenian: չակերտ (hy) (čʻakert)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 書名號／书名号 (zh) (shūmínghào), symbols: 《 and 》, 〈 and 〉

• Finnish: kulmalainausmerkki (fi)
• French: guillemet (fr) m
• German: Guillemet (de) m or n; Möwchen n
• Greek: εισαγωγικά (el) n pl (eisagogiká)
• Hungarian: lúdláb (hu), lúdlábidézőjel, csúcsos idézőjel, kúpos idézőjel
• Italian: citazioni d'angolo m pl, virgolette f pl, virgolettato (it) m, segno diacritico m
• Japanese: ギュメ (gyume), symbols: 《 and 》, 〈 and 〉
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sjevron m

  Nynorsk: sjevron m

• Ottoman Turkish: طرناق (tırnaq)
• Persian: گیومه (fa) (giyume)
• Polish: cudzysłów ostrokątny m
• Portuguese: aspas angulares f pl
• Romanian: ghilimele (ro) f pl, semnul citării n
• Russian: ёлочка (ru) f (jóločka)
• Spanish: comillas latinas f pl, comillas españolas f pl, comillas angulares f pl, comillas bajas f pl

Further reading

• guillemet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

Diminutive form of the name Guillaume (“William”), named after French typecutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–1598), 1677.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡij.mɛ/

• Audio; “un guillemet” /ɛ̃ ɡij.mɛ/:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ
• Homophone: guillemets

Noun

guillemet m (plural guillemets)

1. quotation mark
2. guillemet

Usage notes

In French typography a space is put after the opening guillemet and before the closing one. This rule is followed in France and most of the time in Canadian usage but not necessarily elsewhere and not necessarily on the internet, even on French websites; in Switzerland no space is required in punctuation.

Derived terms

• entre guillemets

Descendants

• → Persian: گیومه (giyume)

Further reading

• “guillemet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.