Punctuation marks, like all other aspects of language, change over time. A personal example: I routinely teach college students what a colon (:) is; they rarely, if ever, have used one before and are unfamiliar with it.
The Daily Mail reports that Venetian printer and publisher Aldus Manutius invented the semicolon in 1494. It proliferated in English. In Nineteenth Century English literature, semicolons typically appeared approximately once every 205 words; a number that is now down to every 309 words. A survey of British students revealed that only 11% use it it regularly and 69% use it rarely.
Although some authors, such as Virginia Woolf, have been fond of it, other writers, notably Kurt Vonnegut, have expressed loathing for this punctuation mark; opinions range into extremes for the semicolon.
-via Dave Barry | Photo: kencf0618