Dele

This article is about the proofreading symbol. For other uses, see Dele (disambiguation).

A dele or deleatur (/ˈdiːliː/, /ˌdiːliːˈeɪtər/) is a proofreading symbol used to mark something for deletion.

Name

Dele, the more common term in modern American English (sometimes used as a verb, e.g. "Dele that graph"), coincides with the imperative form of the Latin delere ("to delete"). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes an earlier use in English of deleatur (Latin "let it be deleted"), and suggests that dele in English may have been an abbreviation for the longer word.

Origin

The origin of the symbol appears to be an archaic letter D in the Kurrent and Sütterlin scripts, as an abbreviation for dele or deleatur. It is markedly similar (if not identical in some cases) to the symbol for the German penny (pfennig symbol) which is an archaic lowercase d, for denarius. As with most hand-written letters and symbols, its appearance is variable.

Usage

File:Sample proof.png

A section of proofread text, with a dele in the left margin indicating the stricken text ("and other,") is to be deleted. (The marks in the right margin mean, from left to right and top to bottom: replace stricken hyphen with one en dash; insert semicolon; insert comma; and transpose circled text.)

The dele is used in proofreading and copy editing, where it may be written over the selected text itself (such that it often resembles a stretched cursive e), or in the margin alongside the selected text, which is usually struck through with a line.

The stricken text or the dele itself may be framed by top and bottom curved brackets, as in this example, to indicate that the space left after deletion is to be closed up. As the need for such closing up can usually be inferred by context, however, the brackets are often omitted.

A dele can be undone with a stet.

External links

• List of proofreading marks