Getting Backslash Mixed Up With Forward Slash

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mark calling in from the Chicago area.

So my question is, when did a forward slash become a backslash?

I think I know what you mean by that, but will you explain?

Yes.

So frequently when listening to radio or podcasts and there are advertisements where somebody wants to send you to their website, they will say, you know, for more information, visit www.website.com backslash such and such, you know, to direct you to a specific page.

And to me, the thing that it should be that they should be saying is forward slash, not backslash.

But I’m open to being told that I’m wrong.

All right. Why are you why are you noticing this?

I mean, are you in a background where this is particularly apparent to you?

I mean, do you work in tech?

Are you a computer programmer or something like that?

I’m in my mid-30s, but I’ve been programming for probably 25 years.

You know, my friends and I were teaching each other and ourselves how to program in, you know, basic and other up-and-coming languages when we were in middle school and grade school, late grade school.

And I’ve continued since then to go into the IT field and into information security.

So for me, there is a huge distinction between what is a backslash and a forward slash.

And I see that distinction observed in my circles and in tech circles.

But then outside of that, it does not appear to be observed in the same way.

Yeah, I asked because I worked in IT for a long time, too.

And I remember teaching people how to use the Internet in the early 90s.

And it was a struggle.

You know, it was a struggle to get people not even then not to call it a backslash.

And I’m like, you know, unless you’re talking about a Windows file path or you’re programming, it’s almost always a forward slash, you know, and definitely in Internet path files, path names or the Internet, you know, the URL, it’s a forward slash.

And I think it’s a really common thing to call it a backslash.

But and there’s another reason why I think people do that.

And it’s that for some people it doesn’t look like it’s moving back.

It looks like it’s moving forward.

They don’t think of it as leaning back.

Like on Stack Exchange, people are talking about it, they’re bickering about it, and some people say, no, it looks like it’s moving forward because it starts at the upper left and it goes forward to down to the right.

It’s going forward.

Yeah, I can get that, but at the same time, to me, it looks like it’s leaning forward because it leans in the same direction that in penmanship, for example, you are taught to lean your letters to the right.

Bingo. Bingo. Yes. Mark, that’s it exactly. So the mistake that they’re making is not thinking about when you learned to write, you start on the baseline. This is a jargon from topography.

The baseline is where you begin to write your letters. And both of these punctuation marks start on the baseline, imagine the word happy, H-A-P-P-Y. The H and the A, they sit on top of the baseline, but the letters P-P-Y, they have descenders. These are those little legs that go below the baseline and only like the circles of the P and like the V part of the Y sit on that baseline.

So you have to start where the character begins the baseline before you start to think about what means forward and what means backward, right? So the backward slash is clearly backward when you start at the baseline and go up and to the left, which is back. And the forward slash clearly is up and to the right, which is forward because we’re a left to right language.

But when you’re hearing somebody talk about just giving an internet address, they tend to say backslash at the end. Is that what you’re saying?

Yeah. And it’s not a backslash.

Yeah.

Mark it’s right.

There’s no argument about it.

I mean, this isn’t one of those things like, well, maybe it’s a backslash.

It’s never a backslash.

It’s always a forward slash in an internet address.

I wonder if it’s just easier to say backslash and it sounds like backsplash, like on a sync.

I mean, you know, forward slash, it’s kind of, you know.

It’s clunky.

Yeah, it’s clunky.

It’s more clunky, yeah.

Yeah, it’s more work.

Yeah, backslash is fluid and it’s got, you know, almost rhymes and it’s easy to say.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you’ve heard a lot of people say it, so it comes easier to the tongue.

Yeah.

I’m surprised that copy editors are not catching it, but it’s possible, I guess, that they are making a conscious decision to use the wrong word because it sounds better.

And they know that people will understand it and probably type the correct thing or the web browser will correct it for them.

Well, and in punctuation, it’s called a virgule, too, right?

It can be.

That forward slash, yeah, which comes from a Latin word that means twig.

But maybe we can get people to say that, you know, give an Internet address and then say virgule.

But Martha, it’s complicated.

In Unicode, the characters call a solidus, which is a different thing altogether from mathematics.

So the name isn’t even a good guide.

Once we all have our cyber implants, it’ll all be clever.

Yeah.

I’m waiting for the chip in my lobe.

Hey, Mark, thanks so much for calling and sharing your experience.

Thank you guys for having me on.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

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