Early evidence of ditto marks can be seen on a cuneiform tablet of the Neo-Assyrian period (934–608 BCE) where two vertical marks are used in a table of synonyms to repeat text.[6]
The word ditto comes from the Tuscan language,[7] where it is the past participle of the verb dire (to say), with the meaning of "said", as in the locution "the said story". The first recorded use of ditto with this meaning in English occurs in 1625.[7] In English, the abbreviation "do." has sometimes been used.
Файл:PerthGazette 1833 06 01 1 ditto.jpgAn advertisement from 1833. The second item on the list can be read as "Prime American Pork, in barrels", but the third and fourth are ambiguous as to the origin of the meat. The repetition indicator used is "do." (Perth Gazette)
Other languages
For Chinese, Japanese and Korean, there is the specific Unicode character Шаблон:Unichar in the range CJK Symbols and Punctuation. This facilitates the setting of both marks on a single horizontal line in Asian vertical text.
Other languages may use equivalent symbols. For example, in German Шаблон:Char is used.Шаблон:Cn In Russian,Шаблон:Cn SwedishШаблон:Cn and Norwegian[8] handwriting, a version using horizontal lines to indicate the span of the cell in a table where an entry repeats is sometimes seen (––〃––).Шаблон:Cn In French, it is called a Шаблон:Lang, but the actual symbol used may vary. Шаблон:Char is used in Quebec, while in France Шаблон:Char is preferred.[9]
