Comments on: Reference Question of the Week – 11/7/10

By: Swiss Army Librarian » Reference Question of the Week – 11/7/10 :: Brian Herzog « Nogginquest’s Weblog

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:37:39 +0000

[...] via Swiss Army Librarian » Reference Question of the Week – 11/7/10 :: Brian Herzog. [...]

By: Tori

Tori — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:12:18 +0000

In the early days of online chat, asterisks were used to show that the word should be read as though it were in bold. Asterisks were also used to denote actions. For example, sending *yawns* instead of “I’m tired.”

By: Brian Herzog

Brian Herzog — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 03:03:53 +0000

@Jen @Diana @Erin Yeah, I’ve always read the asterisks as emphasis, and that’s what this patron was going for, too. It’s just that “air quotes” was the closest thing I could think of to search on, figuring that anyone talking about air asterisks would also mention air quotes, too. So, similar hand motion, but entirely different meaning. But only time will tell if I actually have enough courage to airsterisk in real life.

By: Erin

Erin — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 17:55:42 +0000

I was going to say the same thing as Diana. It’s a word processing shortcut. That said – *air asterisks* is cracking me up.

By: Diana

Diana — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 17:47:40 +0000

I have always used asterisks to emphasize. In fact, if you surround a word with asterisks in Google Talk, it automatically makes the word bold.

By: Jen

Jen — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:24:18 +0000

In my understanding of web parlance, asterisks are to emphasize, not be air quotes. Hopefully I haven’t been ticking people off!

By: Annie Johnson

Annie Johnson — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:09:37 +0000

Favourite RQotW so far!