Wikipedia's first sentence called it “punctuation mark developed to be distinct from the asterisk”. Today it says “punctuation mark added to unicode 1”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Arabic For astronomical stars with Arabic names, see List of Arabic star names . The Arabic star is a punctuation mark added to Unicode 1.1 because the asterisk (*) might appear similar to a Star of David in its six-lobed form ( ) . The Arabic star is given a distinct character in Unicode , U+066D   ٭ ARABIC FIVE POINTED STAR (the note ‘appearance rather variable’ was added in Unicode 5.1 ), in the range Arabic punctuation . Unicode 1.1 appendix H § 5.4.3: ‘٭’ [066D] arabic five pointed star ’ Fonts & Encodings by Yannis Haralambous, page 73: ‘There is nothing inherently Arabic about the character ‘٭’ 0x066D arabic five pointed star ; it was provided only to ensure that a five-pointed asterisk would be available, as the ordinary asterisk ‘*’, with its six lobes, might be mistaken for a Star of David in print of poor quality.’ Kenneth Whistler, who was secretary of the Unicode Technical Committee around the time this character was added later wrote : ‘U+066D is a politically motivated addition for Arabic, which always retains its 5-pointed form, so as not to be reminiscent in any way of the Star of David.’ Unicode 5.1 chart Arabic Chart U+0600 Arabic
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1172458952.
The opening as it stood in 2010
In other scripts Chinese Hebrew Japanese Korean Related Diacritics Whitespace characters Word dividers Typographic symbols Category v t e For stars with Arabic names, see List of Arabic star names . The Arabic star is a punctuation mark developed to be distinct from the asterisk (*). The asterisk had existed in feudal times , and the original shape of the asterisk was six-pointed, each point like a teardrop coming from the center. However, some typewriters had difficulty printing the six arms distinctly. Furthermore, due to Arab-Israeli tension , many Arabs would not buy typewriters with a six-armed symbol, which they identified with the Star of David (✡) on the Israeli flag . Hence many systems use a distinct symbol referred to as the "Arabic star". The Arabic star is given a distinct character in Unicode , U+066D, in the space reserved for the Arabic alphabet . The official name is "Arabic five-pointed star." In many modern fonts, however, the asterisk is five-pointed, and the Arabic star is sometimes six- or eight-pointed. The two symbols are compared below (the display depends on your browser's font). Persian Asterisk from PersianComputing forum Unicode Arabic five-pointed star
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 339137477.
The opening as it stood in 2015 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
In other scripts Chinese Hebrew Japanese Korean Related Diacritics Whitespace characters Word dividers Typographic symbols Category v t e For stars with Arabic names, see List of Arabic star names . The Arabic star is a punctuation mark developed to be distinct from the asterisk (*). The asterisk had existed in feudal times , and the original shape of the asterisk was six-pointed, each point like a teardrop coming from the center. However, some typewriters had difficulty printing the six arms distinctly. The Arabic star is given a distinct character in Unicode , U+066D   ٭ ARABIC FIVE POINTED STAR (noted: "Appearance rather variable"), in the range Arabic punctuation .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 544452526.
The opening as it stood in 2020 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Arabic star is a punctuation mark developed to be distinct from the asterisk (*). The asterisk had existed in feudal times , and the original shape of the asterisk was six-pointed, each point like a teardrop coming from the center. However, some typewriters had difficulty printing the six arms distinctly. The Arabic star is given a distinct character in Unicode , U+066D   ٭ ARABIC FIVE POINTED STAR (noted: "Appearance rather variable"), in the range Arabic punctuation .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 945064284.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “punctuation mark developed to be distinct from the asterisk”. Today it says “punctuation mark added to unicode 1”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
punctuation mark developed to be distinct from the asterisk
Now
punctuation mark added to unicode 1
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
