The angzarr () is an obscure typographical symbol representing
azimuth
An azimuth (; from ) is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north, in a local or observer-centric spherical coordinate system.
Mathematically, the relative position vector from an observer ( origin) to a point ...
,
dating back to at least the mid 20th century, which became notorious during the first half of the 2020s for its obscurity and lack of a widely recognised meaning (compare
ghost characters).
The name is from an abbreviation of its
ISO 9573-13 name, "Angle with Down Zig-zag Arrow",
also reflected in its
Unicode
Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
name, "Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow". Its
HTML entity reference, originally defined in ISO 9573-13 for use in
SGML
The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML; International Organization for Standardization, ISO 8879:1986) is a standard for defining generalized markup languages for documents. ISO 8879 Annex A.1 states that generalized markup is "based on t ...
, is .
It has been included in Unicode since version 3.2.
History
The symbol can be found in
H. Berthold AG symbol catalogs published some time in the 1950s and 1960s, where it is described as a
mathematical symbol
A mathematical symbol is a figure or a combination of figures that is used to represent a mathematical object, an action on mathematical objects, a relation between mathematical objects, or for structuring the other symbols that occur in a formula ...
for "'".
It is also found in a 1963
Monotype
Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...
typeset catalog of arrow characters;
it does not appear in an earlier 1954 edition of the same catalog.
Monotype listed the symbol as matrix serial number S9576.
A later 1972 Monotype catalog, for mathematical characters, listed it under another serial number, S16139;
the reason for the redundant serial number is unclear.
It is unknown why Monotype added the character, or what purpose it was intended to serve,
although much of Monotype's
character repertoire for
movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable Sort (typesetting), components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric charac ...
originated from customer requests, including corporate logos.
In 1988, the
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries.
M ...
added the symbol to its
Standard Generalized Markup Language
The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML; ISO 8879:1986) is a standard for defining generalized markup languages for documents. ISO 8879 Annex A.1 states that generalized markup is "based on two postulates":
* Declarative: Markup should de ...
(SGML) definition, apparently pulling it from the Monotype character set. The
STIX Fonts project adopted the Angzarr symbol from the ISO's SGML characters.
In March 2000, the Angzarr symbol reached wide distribution when the
Unicode Technical Committee, in collaboration with the STIX project, proposed adding it to
ISO/IEC 10646
ISO/IEC JTC 1, entitled "Information technology", is a joint technical committee (JTC) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Its purpose is to develop, maintain and ...
, the
ISO
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries.
Me ...
standard with which the
Unicode Standard is synchronised. The Angzarr was proposed in the ISO working-group document ''Proposal for Encoding Additional Mathematical Symbols'', although no specific purpose is listed for the symbol.
The lack of meaning associated with the Angzarr symbol gained notoriety in 2022 when a blog post was published on its unknown origins.
The blog was updated in 2023, confirming the appearance of Angzarr in a 1972 Monotype typeset catalogue with a scan of the page,
and in 2024, confirming its appearance in earlier Monotype catalogues.
See also
*
List of Unicode characters
As of Unicode version 16.0, there are 292,531 assigned character (computing), characters with code points, covering 168 modern and historical Script (Unicode), scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets. As it is WP:CHOKING, not technically possib ...
*
*
Arrow (symbol)
An arrow is a graphical symbol, such as ←, ↑ or →, or a pictogram, used to point or indicate direction. In its simplest form, an arrow is a triangle, chevron, or concave kite, usually
affixed to a line segment or rectangle, and in mor ...
References
{{Reflist
Unicode
Symbols
Horizontal coordinate system