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A letter turned around in the margin.
Also known as: Reversed nun, Antisigma
The Masoretic mark of a reversed letter placed around certain passages of the text.
Brackets certain passages of the Hebrew Bible, in a handful of places.
Contexts: Language and transcription, Religion
Its purpose is not agreed: proposals include marking a passage as out of place, as parenthetical, or as textually doubtful, and the scribal tradition preserved the mark without preserving its explanation.
The function of the inverted nun is not established; several explanations are proposed and none is accepted.
Contexts: Language and transcription, Religion
Compared by scholars to the Alexandrian critical signs, which used marginal marks for related purposes in Greek texts of the same era.
Contexts: Language and transcription, Religion
The letter nun drawn reversed or inverted, set in the line before and after the passage it brackets.
Both are marginal marks used by ancient editors to flag a line as requiring attention.