Carons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Marks resembling small inverted commas placed above certain letters to indicate specific pronunciation or stress; specialized diacritical signs used in some alphabets to alter phonetic value; typographical symbols added to letters to guide correct vocalization or emphasis
2. Diacritical accents positioned atop characters to signify changes in sound or emphasis; orthographic marks employed in various languages to modify letter pronunciation; small glyphs used above letters to denote distinct phonemic traits or stress patterns
3. Specific diacritical signs shown as small inverted crescents above letters for phonetic distinction; marks that adjust the normal pronunciation of characters; ornamental strokes indicating altered speech sounds or stress in writing systems

Etymology: "Carons" is the plural of "caron", a noun for the small accent marks placed over letters, such as the one in the Czech letter "š". The singular is first recorded in the United States Government Printing Office Style Manual of 1967, where it apparently named an inverted caret, the sign that looks like a small "v" set over a letter. That is the earliest known appearance, and it sits in a style guide rather than a dictionary or literary work. The origin of the word itself remains unknown. One proposal is that it was formed from "caret", the proofreader's symbol "^", given the similar shape. The ending "-on" may come from "macron", the bar placed over a vowel to mark length, or it may be an augmentative suffix, a pattern that makes a word name something larger or more prominent, after speakers reanalysed the "-et" of "caret" as a diminutive. Neither explanation has been confirmed, so the word's ancestry is best described as a plausible guess built on the shape of the mark.

Synonyms: háčeks, wedge accents