The Comma

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Comma

[kom-uh]

Aside from the period, the comma is the most common punctuation mark in English. The word is derived from the Greek koptein meaning "to cut off," fitting for our beloved comma's use in marking pauses within sentences and separating terms in a list.

The mark was invented by the Italian printer Aldus Manutius in the late 1400s, a time when the slash mark signified a pause. Manutius lowered the slash mark in relation to the line of text and curved it slightly around the final letter. This freed the slash mark to indicate a comparison and simultaneously gave birth to the comma.