PERIOD

PERIOD. In the classical study of language, dominant in English during the 16–19c, the term for a SENTENCE regarded as ‘complete’ because it is composed of a balanced group of main and dependent clauses. If a period (also known as a PERIODIC SENTENCE or a POINT) was well formed, it was called well-rounded or well-turned; ‘If you will not take this as an excuse, accept it at least as a well-turned period, which is always my principal concern’ ( Thomas Gray, letter to N. Nicholls, 1764). The term also applied, especially in the 16c, to a pause at the end of a spoken sentence. By the early 17c, it was being used, alongside full stop and full point, for the PUNCTUATION MARK (.), which served to signal the closing pause. In elocution, this mark is associated with the silent counting of time: ‘A Comma stops the Voice while we may privately tell one, a Semicolon two; a Colon three; and a Period four’ ( John Mason, An Essay on elocution, 1748). The theory and practice of pauses associated with punctuation marks has lost most of its force in the 20c, but some teachers continue to use aspects of it, and when reading aloud many people pause for breath or effect at the end of sentences. Currently, period is the most widely used and understood term for the point at the end of a sentence: it is the dominant term in North America, but in the UK takes second place to full stop. Especially in colloquial AmE, the word period is often used as an interjection to indicate that someone has made a decision and has nothing more to say on the matter: ‘I forbid them to go, period.’ See DOT, ELLIPSIS.