What ꝯ means
Usually con- or com-.
ꝯ is a brevigraph, a shortened written sign that scribes used to save time and space when writing recurring parts of words.
Medieval scribes inherited and adapted abbreviation marks from Roman and Tironian shorthand traditions, systems of shortened writing used for speed.
Why can ꝯ also stand for -us?
Its place in the word can change its reading.
At a word’s start, ꝯ usually represents con- or com-. Examples include French concorde (“agreement”) and comme (“as” or “like”), Latin conscientia (“conscience”), and Spanish consejo (“advice”).
In the medieval Spanish chronicle Estoria de Espanna, it can also stand for -us at a word’s end or when raised above the line. A transcription that preserves a manuscript’s spelling keeps ꝯ; an edited text may expand it into ordinary letters.
Scholarly and archival; it signals manuscript transcription or historical typography.
Outside manuscript transcription, spell out the word; readers may lack the clues to distinguish con/com from -us.
Who writes ꝯ
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What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsUsually con- or com-; the rest comes from the surrounding word.
Don't confuse it with
1
Related characters
3
Questions people ask
1Why does ꝯ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
More like this
9
How to type or find ꝯ
- Also called
- con abbreviation · con brevigraph
- Search it as
- brevigraph · scribal abbreviation · paleography · manuscript abbreviation · Latin abbreviation · 9-like symbol
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ꝯ\A76FCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.