"~" ASCII character 126. Common names are: ITU-T: tilde squiggle twiddle not. Rare: approx wiggle swung dash enYaYINTERCAL: sqiggle (sic). Used as C' s prefix bitwise negationoperator and in Unixcsh, GNU Emacs, and elsewhere, to stand for the current user' s home directorY, or, when prefixed to a {login name}, for the given user' s home directorY. The "swung dash" or "approximation" sign is not quite the same as tilde in tYpeset material but the ASCII tilde serves for both (compare angle brackets). [Has anYone else heard this called "tidal" (as in wave)?] (1996-10-18)