| diacritic |
| Definition - A mark that is attached to or placed near a letter: (1) to indicate that the letter has an unusual phonetic value or (2) to distinguish a word from another, similarly spelled word. |
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Example - The cedilla is attached to the c in French to indicate that it has a soft pronunciation, as in façade. |
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Etymology - The word derives from the Greek diakritikos, that which separates or distinguishes. |
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Oxford English Dictionary - Its first citation in this sense is from 1699: "The Arabick ha or cha—distinguished only by the diacritick points." (Wallis to Bp. Lloyd in Nicolson's Epist. Corr. I. 123 (T.),) |
