PARAGRAPH

• Post Eagle
• August 2, 2015
• Word Etymology
• 0 Comments

Today’s word is – PARAGRAPH.

PARAGRAPH means – A SHORT HORIZONTAL MARK BELOW THE LINE, WHICH BEGAN A NEW SUBJECT.

The Greek word – PARA – means ALONGSIDE, BESIDE, UNDERSIDE, BY THE SIDE OF.
And the Greek word – GRAPHEIN – means – TO WRITE.

Greeks and Romans wrote in a run-on fashion with no separation of words or lines. Since all sentences ran one after another they underlined the part expressing a new thought. Therefore, they called this new thought a PARAGRAPH because it was where they wrote a line beside this new thought. Sometimes, instead of using a horizontal line, they may have used a wedge (>), they might have enlarged the first letter of a paragraph or they might extend it out into the margin.