Definition:
Marks of punctuation ([ ]) used to interject text within other text. Types of brackets include:
- brackets (chiefly American): [ ]
- square brackets (chiefly British): [ ]
- parentheses (chiefly American): ( )
- round brackets (chiefly British): ( )
- brace or curly brackets: { }
- angle brackets: < >
Etymology:
From the Latin, "breeches"Examples and Observations:
- "Use brackets to enclose any words or phrases that you have inserted into an otherwise word-for-word quotation:
Audubon reports that "if there are not enough young to balance deaths, the end of the species [California condor] is inevitable."
The sentence quoted from the Audubon article did not contain the words California condor (since the context made clear what species was meant), so the writer needed to add the name in brackets."
(Diana Hacker, The Bedford Handbook, 6th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002) - "Use brackets around the italicized word sic (from Latin, meaning 'thus,' or 'thus it is,' or 'that's the way the cookie actually crumbled') to indicate that an error or peculiarity in a quotation is being reproduced exactly as it was originally said or written:
"I think the way we's [sic] educating our young people is just fine," boasted the school superintendent.
On those (hopefully) very rare occasions when you want or need to use parentheses within parentheses, use brackets instead."
"It's not fine," said one angry mother. "My kid's in fifth grade, and he barely knows that four and three equalizes nine [sic]."
(Richard Lederer and John Shore, Comma Sense, St. Martin's Press, 2005) - "Mr. Bumble said 'a ass' not 'an ass' in Oliver Twist. . . . [In a quotation, one] option might have been 'The law is a[n] ass,' although this would have carried the condescending tone of a 'sic' flag, implying we're smarter than Dickens."
(Blair Shewchuk, "Quibbling Over Quotes," CBC News Online, April 23, 2004)
Pronunciation: BRAK-et
