tilde

character "~" ASCII character 126.

Common names are: ITU-T: tilde; squiggle; twiddle; not.

Rare: approx; wiggle; swung dash; enyay; INTERCAL: sqiggle

(sic).

Used as C's prefix bitwise negation operator; and in

Unix csh, GNU Emacs, and elsewhere, to stand for the

current user's home directory, or, when prefixed to a loginname, for the given user's home directory.

The "swung dash" or "approximation" sign is not quite the same

as tilde in typeset material but the ASCII tilde serves for

both (compare angle brackets).

[Has anyone else heard this called "tidal" (as in wave)?]

(1996-10-18)