dinkus en · NOUN
Etymology
From dinky (“tiny and cute”). The word was coined by an artist on the Australian periodical The Bulletin in the 1920s.
Meanings
- A small drawing or artwork used for decoration in a magazine or periodical.
-
A small ornament, usually a line of three asterisks (* * *), especially for the purpose of breaking up sections of a chapter, article, or other text.
More generally a dinkus is a small ornamentation, usually three asterisks, that break up sections of a book chapter, article or other written text.
2023 January 31, Elisabeth Ribbans, “The perils of using journalist jargon outside the newsroom”, in The Guardian:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| dingus | alternative | lexicographic | |
| dinkuses | Number=Plur | lexicographic |