The section mark, or §, is a typographical symbol used to refer to a specific section in a document, especially legal documents. It can also be used to designate footnotes or as an abbreviation for the Latin scilicet. It can be produced on a computer using various codes.
The section mark, or §, is a glyph or typographical mark most often used to designate a particular section within a document. It is also known as the double “s” or section symbol, or by its Latin name, signum sectionis. Its precise history is not known, but it most likely derives from the combination of the two letters “SS”, which is the abbreviation of signum sectionis. The section mark can also be used to designate a footnote or as an abbreviation of the Latin scilicet, meaning “It is permitted to know.”
As the name suggests, the most common use of the section mark is to refer to a specific section in a longer document, especially a legal document. For example, §11 refers the reader to Section 11. If Section 11 has more than one paragraph, there may also be a “cushion” or paragraph symbol, to indicate which particular paragraph is being referred to, as in: §11 ¶5 . To refer to different sections of a document, two section marks would appear in a row, as in: §§6–12 or §§5, 13. This is similar to using “p”. to refer to a single page and “pp.” to designate multiple pages of a book or document.
An abbreviation for scilicet is a secondary use of the section mark. Scilicent, which can also be written as Sc. or SS, literally means “It is permitted to know.” It is generally followed by a clarification of what came before; for example, “He saw the situation for what it was, § a robbery.”
Occasionally, the section mark will be used as a footnote marker when the asterisk
it has already been used in the document or on that particular page. This usage is not very common, however. More often, when a document has multiple footnotes, these will be designated with numbered superscripts like 1, 2, etc.
The section mark is not found on a typical keyboard, but can be produced on a computer by a variety of codes. In HTML, the code is § or §. In ASCII, it’s alt+245. In Unicode it is U+00A7. There are also other codes for use with particular software. Anyone who needs to know how to enter the symbol in a certain program can simply search for “section mark” within the help menu.
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