backslash, reverse slash [ \ ] (2025)

The symbol that is the opposite of a slash (or /) or stroke, in French, to my knowledge, is referred to as 'anti-slash', on the basis of the English word 'slash'. The symbol is: \

However, 'anti-slash' is not, to the best of my knowledge, used in English; I believe the English term is 'reverse slash'.

Can you confirm the above is correct?

Thanks

Apparemment, les informaticiens utilisent reverse slash, en effet : http://www.metaquotes.net/experts/mql4/datatypes/

http://www.firstsql.com/jive/jive2/jiv2html.htm

http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docutils/parsers/rst/include/isotech.txt

Le terme barre oblique inverse est-il vraiment employé ?

Another useful-looking resource: http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-symbols-g.htm

Ok, very interesting - so in French it would indeed be 'antislash' without a hyphen; 'barre oblique inverse' is officialese I think, i.e. a pseudo-French word some official dreamt up not to use an (ugly) 'Anglo-Saxon' word! I did not know 'barre oblique' for 'slash' is used in French...

And 'reverse slash' would be the English term, presumably.

Kelly B said:

Le terme barre oblique inverse est-il vraiment employé ?

Click to expand...

C'est ce que j'utilise.

Tiré du Petit Robert:

7¨ Trait droit. Tirer une barre pour biffer un passage. Þ rature; barrer. Barre de soustraction. Barre oblique. La barre du t. Cet écolier fait des barres.

Click to expand...

OK, so we would have:-

-In French: Barre oblique or slash
-In English: Slash or stroke or forward slash

And the opposite:

-In French: Barre oblique inverse or antislash
-In English: Reverse slash, or Backward slash, or Back slash

I don't think 'slash' for 'barre oblique' is used in French... [Edit: Apparently, yes it is...]

I don't think 'slash' for 'barre oblique' is used in French...

Click to expand...

But, yes, it is. And much more often than "barre oblique" I think...

Yes, you don't seriously think that people use "barre oblique" and "barre oblique inverse" when talking about computer path names, do you? Well I can tell you that they don't, otherwise you'd hear sentences like these:

(Linux)
Ok, va chercher dans barre oblique home barre oblique usr barre oblique tmp barre oblique partoche et tu trouveras ton fichier

(ou mieux encore, Windows)
Ok, va chercher dans C deux-points barre oblique inverse Windows barre oblique inverse System32 barre oblique inverse drivers barre oblique inverse etc pour trouver ton fichier "hosts"

Bostonien said:

Yes, you don't seriously think that people use "barre oblique" and "barre oblique inverse" when talking about computer path names, do you? Well I can tell you that they don't, otherwise you'd hear sentences like these:

(Linux)
Ok, va chercher dans barre oblique home barre oblique usr barre oblique tmp barre oblique partoche et tu trouveras ton fichier

(ou mieux encore, Windows)
Ok, va chercher dans C deux-points barre oblique inverse Windows barre oblique inverse System32 barre oblique inverse drivers barre oblique inverse etc pour trouver ton fichier "hosts"

Click to expand...

Ou encore
Oublie les obliques et les slaches et utilise la fonction "Recherche"

Welcome to the Forum, motoxxx138!

My impression, from reading the preceding posts, is that "antislash" is one of the terms that is used in French. I don't think anyone was proposing that the word is used in the US.

To people who don't speak English, I would probably say "anti-slash".
But to my English-speaking French colleagues, I would say "backslash" because that's shorter.

And this is very likely why almost no one will use "Barre oblique (inverse)" in normal speech.

Academicians feel obliged to translate every single word/expression which has a non-French root into something based on French words only.
But obviously, when the French equivalent is longer than the English version, laziness (+ defiance of authority (here, the Academy) ) will usually win.

And this is also what can lead us to even use "fake" English expressions like 'anti-slash' or "un parking" (= a car park), because they just roll off the tongue.

'Anticlockwise' is used in British English, and is nothing unusual. But it is true there would not be many words like this. I have checked the Oxford Concise Dictionary and virtually all the words starting with 'anti--' mean 'an opponent of'. In the case of Antipodes, the etymology would be 'feet [pode] apart [anti]', so, once more, you find the idea of contrast/opposition.

I would say that, in French, as far as I am aware, 'anti--' also means 'the opposite of', as in 'an opponent of', just like it does in English, generally speaking. E.g.: an anti-capitalist programme.