At different times I see "full stop" used online. Does this just mean a period, or is it something more or less? I would assume it refers to a period specifically at the end of a sentence, but does it mean more than that?
In the King James Version of the Bible, the colon is often used as what appears to be a "double stop". It seems to break apart groups of sentences. Other times it seems to be used as the period version of a semi-colon, almost connecting the two sentences. How is it actually used? Is there such a thing as a "Double Stop" or is it just called a colon? I know colons are supposed to be only used for lists, but are there other ways they can be used as well?
Answer
According to Wikipedia, "A full stop ( . ) (British, New Zealand and Australian English) or period (American English and Canadian English) is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of sentences."
"Full stop" and "period" are two names for the same thing, however it is used.
The colon is used to indicate that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration of what precedes it. That is, having introduced some topic in more general terms, you can use a colon and go on to explain that same topic in more specific terms. -- Larry Trask’s ‘Guide to Punctuation’.
Colons and semicolons are used to connect complete sentences, a colon to connect a specific sentence to a general sentence preceding it, and a semicolon otherwise. A period/full stop would work just as well as a semicolon, but a semicolon is normally used when the sentences are closely related. If they were connected with a conjunction you would use a comma.
Therefore, no: a colon is not a double stop. Probably the closest thing to a double stop would be a paragraph mark.
Now for a bit of history:
The full stop symbol derives from Aristophanes of Byzantium who invented the system of punctuation where the height of placement of a dot on the line determined its meaning. The high dot (˙) was called a "periodos" and indicated a finished thought or sentence, the middle dot (·) was called a "kolon" and indicated part of a complete thought, while the low dot (.) was called a "telia" and also indicated part of a complete thought. -- Wikipedia - Full Stop
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