Now I’ve been doing this graphic design schtick for the better part of the last ten years or so, and I like to think that I’ve seen a good bit.  But apparently, regardless of the massive amounts of production work I’ve done in the past, there is always still some room for this old dog to learn some new things.

virgule, n. – a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur

In other words, a slash.  Instructions were given to me by an editor to add a space before and after a virgule, and I’m sitting there going wtf.  So I looked it up, and lo and behold, it’s a got-damn slash.

And as much as I enjoyed pronouncing it like the greatest slave-gimmick of all time, it’s actually pronounced “vur-gyool“