Di`a*crit"ic (?), Di`a*crit"ic*al (?), a. [Gr. , fr. to separate, distinguish; through + to separate. See Critic.]
That separates or distinguishes; -- applied to points or marks used to distinguish letters of similar form, or different sounds of the same letter, as,
ā, ă, ä, ō, ŏ,
etc.
"
Diacritical points."
Sir W. Jones.
A glance at this typography will reveal great difficulties, which diacritical marks necessarily throw in the way of both printer and writer.
A. J. Ellis.
© Webster 1913.
E2 editor's note: The original HTML tags don't render properly here. For those who care, they were
- ā lower-case a with macron,
- ă lower-case a with breve,
- ä lower-case a with dieresis or umlaut,
- ō lower-case o with macron,
- &obreve; lower-case o with breve