March 10, 2026
Sextant wars: the squiggle saga
U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth
That Weird ⍼ Finally Named “Azimuth”—Nerds Cheer, Sailors Shrug, Jokes Fly
TLDR: A 1950 German catalog labels the symbol ⍼ as “azimuth,” settling a long-running mystery. Commenters split between triumphant sleuths, “this was obvious” maritime veterans, antimeme jokes, and folks eager to use it now—plus calls to create a matching symbol for altitude, because one glyph is never enough.
The internet’s favorite mystery squiggle just got a name: ⍼ stands for “azimuth,” the angle of direction on a compass. A 1950 German type catalog from H. Berthold AG labels it exactly that, and a Wikipedia update sealed the deal. Cue the victory laps from the sleuths who’ve been chasing this for years—one commenter even points back to a 2022 Hacker News hunt that kicked off the search.
But not everyone’s clapping. In pure internet fashion, the mood swung from case closed to was this ever a case? User cookiengineer rolled in like a salty sea captain to say, basically, “this wasn’t a mystery,” citing German maritime maps and sextant charts. Meanwhile, the article’s note that the symbol can be turned sideways for azimuth measurements drew a dry “Ah, of course :)” from tantalor—translation: not everyone’s buying the neat story.
Then came the memes. Tantalor’s standout joke: maybe these symbols have an “antimemetic field” that makes everyone forget their meaning. You can practically hear the X‑Files theme. On the practical side, aleyan is already planning to drop ⍼ into an ASCII sky map and immediately hits the real-world snag: there’s no matching sign for altitude (height above the horizon). The solution? Why not invent one and pitch it to standards folks.
In short, it’s a perfect internet cocktail: hard evidence, nerdy lore, dry sarcasm, and a dash of ship‑wheel energy. ⍼ finally points somewhere—and the comments sailed off in every direction.
Key Points
- •H. Berthold AG’s 1950 symbol catalogue labels U+237C (⍼) as “Azimut, Richtungswinkel” (azimuth, direction angle).
- •Schriftprobe catalogues from 1949, 1951, and 1952 include the glyph and sizes on page 104 but without the descriptor name.
- •The glyph is absent from Berthold’s 1946 Registerprobe and earlier 1909 and 1900 catalogues, indicating introduction between 1946 and 1949.
- •A 28 Feb 2025 Wikipedia update by user Moyogo added the Berthold 1950 citation to the Angzarr page, documenting the meaning.
- •The glyph’s design resembles a sextant’s light path for measuring angles, consistent with its azimuth meaning.