middle dot

— The Greek manuscripts of later date show a system more like that now employed. About the ninth century the comma appears to denote the slight pause, while the high dot (·) indicates a colon or semicolon, and the full stop is denoted by a larger dot or double dot and a space. A little later the interrogation point (;) appears, though not very frequently. The Latin grammarians adopted the punctuation by dots from the Greeks, but seemingly modified the system slightly so as to give the middle dot the middle value and the lower the smallest.