Literal Translation
Between quotation marks
Actual Meaning
Quote unquote, supposedly
Etymology
Quotation marks are opened and closed to emphasise or highlight something; this can be mimed with a gesture of the fingers. In the Middle Ages, quotation marks were initially commas (vir-gula in Latin, meaning “little rod”) used to frame a word with a doubtful meaning or one that needed to be corrected. In current usage, the word has retained this meaning. The quotation mark itself first appeared in 1527 and its invention was mistakenly attributed to the printer Guillaume, who lived in the 17th century!