> And Rosta wrote:
>> Ray:
>>> the 'caron' (hacek, haczek) used in the writing of Czech
>>> & some other Slav langs - like an _inverted_ circumflex.
>>
>> Where does this word 'caron' come from? I first encountered
>> it in the character set section of the manual of my first
>> computer (Amstrad PCW, I worked all the summer of 1987 to
>> buy it), but it's not in my copies of OED or Webster's
>> Unabridged, and I've never seen it in texts on typography
>> or writing systems (where hacek, which is in the dictionaries,
>> is used).
>
> This has been discussed on this list before. Try
> <
http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?
> A2=ind0310e&L=conlang&F=&S=&P=1316>
> by the ever-knowledgeable John Cowan (29 Oct 2003):
> : Andreas Johansson scripsit:
> : > > Nevertheless, the standards community has adopted "diaeresis" as
> the general
> : > > name, so we are stuck with it. They also call the hacek "caron",
> and no one
> : > > knows why.
> :
> : > What's the etymology of "caron", BTW?
> :
> : That's just what I meant by "no one knows why"; the etymology is
> unknown,
> : and the term seems to exist only in ISO character standards.
>
> So we're all at a loss. What fun!
> I suppose it'll find its way into dictionaries soon enough. It's
> definitely in _Tristan's Dictionary Kept in His Brain for His and only
> His Consultation_, the definitive dictionary of my idiolect. (Copies
> cannot be made, sorry.)
>