Angzarr

The angzarr (⍼) is an obscure typographical symbol representing azimuth,^[1][2] dating back to at least the mid 20th century, which became notorious during the first half of the 2020s for its obscurity and lack of a widely recognised meaning (compare ghost characters).

⍼
Angzarr
In Unicode	U+237C ⍼ RIGHT ANGLE WITH DOWNWARDS ZIGZAG ARROW

The name is from an abbreviation of its ISO 9573-13 name, "Angle with Down Zig-zag Arrow",^[3] also reflected in its Unicode name, "Right Angle with Downwards Zigzag Arrow". Its HTML entity reference, originally defined in ISO 9573-13 for use in SGML, is ⍼.^[3] It has been included in Unicode since version 3.2.

History

The symbol ⍼ is found in H. Berthold AG symbol catalogs published around 1941 and 1950 where it is described as a mathematical symbol for "Azimut, Richtungswinkel".^[1][2]

It is also found in a 1963 Monotype typeset catalog of arrow characters;^[4][5] it does not appear in an earlier 1954 edition of the same catalog.^[5][6] Monotype listed the symbol as matrix serial number S9576.^[4][5][7] A later 1972 Monotype catalog, for mathematical characters, listed it under another serial number, S16139;^[8][9] the reason for the redundant serial number is unclear.^[5] It is unknown why Monotype added the character, or what purpose it was intended to serve,^[10][9] although much of Monotype's character repertoire for movable type originated from customer requests, including corporate logos.^[5]

In 1988, the International Organization for Standardization added the symbol to its Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) definition, apparently pulling it from the Monotype character set.^[11] The STIX Fonts project adopted the Angzarr symbol from the ISO's SGML characters.^[12]

In March 2000, the Angzarr symbol reached wide distribution when the Unicode Technical Committee, in collaboration with the STIX project, proposed adding it to ISO/IEC 10646, the ISO standard with which the Unicode Standard is synchronised. The Angzarr was proposed in the ISO working-group document Proposal for Encoding Additional Mathematical Symbols, although no specific purpose is listed for the symbol.^[13]

The lack of meaning associated with the Angzarr symbol gained notoriety in 2022 when a blog post was published on its unknown origins.^[14][15][16] The blog was updated in 2023, confirming the appearance of Angzarr in a 1972 Monotype typeset catalogue with a scan of the page,^[9][17] and in 2024, confirming its appearance in earlier Monotype catalogues.^[5]

See also

• List of Unicode characters
• Ghost characters – Erroneous kanji
• Arrow (symbol)