It is the American practice to add point or mark; the British are content with “exclamation,” or occasionally with the older terms, ecphonesis or epiphonema.
The mark itself(!), however, came into English use about three hundred and fifty years ago, borrowed from earlier Italian usage.

Related Posts
-
Why Did Samuel Clemens Call Himself Mark Twain and What Does the Name Mark Twain Mean? One big reason why Samuel Clemens called himself Mark Twain is that Clemens once wanted nothing more in life than to be a riverboat captain. Having someone measuring and calling out depth in…
-
Where does the old expression and exclamation “hurrah!” originate and what does it mean? The old expression and exclamation "hurrah!" is from an old Norse warrior word "Huzzah!" which meant "On to paradise!" The use of the word in its current form has its origins around the…
-
Where Did the Term “Mark” Come From For a Gullible Person and What Does the Word Mean? A "mark" is someone who can easily be taken advantage of and came to us from midway carnival operators (or "carries") who run games of chance. The word midway was first used to…
-
What does the phrase “beside the mark” mean and Where does it come from? The phrase "beside the mark" is very old. In fact, it is so old that, in the original Greek, it had passed from a proverbial phrase into a single word which expressed its…
-
Where does the phrase “to toe the mark” come from and What does it mean? The phrase "to toe the mark" means: To conform with the rules or to standards of discipline; to fulfil one's obligations; to come up to scratch. Literally, this used to be a term…
-
How Does the Mark-Recapture Method Estimate a Wildlife Population? Researchers set traps to capture a population sampling in a given area. The captured animals are "marked" (or tagged) and then released. After a certain amount of time the traps are set again.…