Serial comma
Serial comma
While many sources provide default recommendations on whether to use the serial comma as a matter of course, most also include exceptions for situations where it is necessary to avoid ambiguity (see Serial comma § Recommendations by style guides).
History
The comma itself is widely attributed to Aldus Manutius, a 15th-century Italian printer who used a mark—now recognized as a comma—to separate words. Etymologically, the word comma, which became widely used to describe Manutius's mark, comes from the Greek κόμμα (lit. 'to cut off'). The serial comma has been used for centuries in a variety of languages, though not necessarily in a uniform or regulated manner.
History
The serial comma is most often attributed to Horace Hart, the printer and controller of the Oxford University Press from 1893 to 1915. Hart wrote the eponymous Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers in 1905 as a style guide for the employees working at the press. The guide called for the use of the serial comma, but the punctuation mark had no distinct name until 1978, when Peter Sutcliffe referred to the serial comma as such in his historical account of the Oxford University Press.
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