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)