Did you know you could search Wikipedia for symbols? What is the actual name of the ÷ symbol? Wikipedia tells us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/÷
The name for the division symbol is obelus.
Wikipedia says about obelus:
The word “obelus” comes from ὀβελός, the Ancient Greek word for a sharpened stick, spit, or pointed pillar. This is the same root as that of the word “obelisk”.
Thus, obelus is another word for sharpened stick. I want to see obelus used in an everyday sentence. Let me try:
Lost in the forests of Alaska, I heard the growls of bears in the distance. Fearing my life, I grabbed a stick and sharpened it into an obelus.
Do books of the past include the word obelus?
Google’s ngram isn’t all that enlightening
To be expected, the usage has dropped over the years. But compare it against the division symbol.
My goodness! We must have started dividing a lot more in 1994.
But we are still looking at division. We want sharpened sticks! Let’s look inside the contents of 19th century books to find obelus as sharpened stick.
Bummer. The results that talk about the obelus as the division symbol or the sword symbol. Where are the examples of obelus used as a sharpened stick‽
How does “sharpened stick” fare on the Ngram Viewer?
This chart is a bit more interesting. The sharpened stick’s popularity hit a peak in 1915. Right in the middle of World War I. Is it a mere coincidence that the sharpened stick started to lose its popularity during this first modern war? The use of telephone, wireless communication, armored cars, tanks, and aircraft would certainly make the sharpened stick seem a lot less effective.
How does sharpened stick compete against the division symbol?
In 1996, the division symbol overtook the sharpened stick. Apparently, the division symbol has become more dangerous than the sharpened stick!