virtue

n 1: the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is

wrong [syn: {virtuousness}, {moral excellence}]

2: any admirable quality or attribute; "work of great merit"

[syn: {merit}] [ant: {demerit}]

3: morality with respect to sexual relations [syn: {chastity},

{sexual morality}]

4: a particular moral excellence

virgule

Rare, and ambiguous: {slash} or {comma}.

"Virgule" (or rather, Latin "virgula", meaning "little rod"

or, vividly enough, "little penis") was the name of a

punctuation character shaped like a small {slash} and used in

the Latin writing system much like a modern {comma} -- hence

the ambiguity of this term in modern English.

Compare French "virgule" and Italian "virgola", meaning

"comma" (not "slash"); Italian "doppia virgola" and

"virgoletta", both meaning "{double quote}".

(1997-04-08)