A dele or deleatur is an obelism (a proofreading symbol) used to mark something for deletion.

Name

Dele, the more common term in modern American English (sometimes used as a verb, e.g. "Dele that graf"), coincides with the imperative form of the Latin delere ("to delete"). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes an earlier use in English of deleatur (Latin "let it be deleted"), and suggests that dele in English may have been an abbreviation for the longer word.

Origin

The origin of the symbol appears to be an archaic letter D in the Kurrent script, as an abbreviation for dele or deleatur. It is markedly similar (if not identical in some cases) to the symbol for the German penny which is an archaic lowercase d, for denarius. As with most hand-written letters and symbols, its appearance is variable.

Computer representation

There is no character for the dele symbol in Unicode as of version 15.0 from September 2022, although its addition has been proposed. The visually similar character for Pfennig at from the Currency Symbols block is often used to represent a dele in Unicode. The same Unicode character is also used for a completely different flourish of approval in Dutch.

Usage

The dele is used in proofreading and copy editing, where it may be written over the selected text itself (such that it often resembles a stretched cursive e), or in the margin alongside the selected text, which is usually struck through with a line. The stricken text or the dele itself may be framed by top and bottom curved brackets, as in the above example, to indicate that the space left after deletion is to be closed up. As the need for such closing up can usually be inferred by context, however, the brackets are often omitted. A dele can be undone with a stet.