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)