What's the name for three dots, like this ... and why is it a bad thing?

[Doodle2U]

I use this a lot in my posts. Say I'm talking about a conversation that crops up in our house, repeatedly.

I might type "again and again and again..."

to signify it's continual. I'm sure I read on here that this practice get's on Pedants' tits. Why does it?

One used to use it to signify that a list was following, but I don't think it's necessary if one has a colon.

SorenLorenson is in the right area...

[yes I meant what is the name for :- ]

ahem ... points to previous post pointedly with a pointer :-

Do we now have to come up with loads of different names for willy? Oh, I couldn't possibly. For I am a laydee.

It's ... a ... POINTER!

Nah - it'll have some poxy, latin sounding name if Stephen Fry knows it!

C'mon Grimma - just tell us now!

It's .. flamin' .. well .. called ... an .. effin' ... frickin' .. POINTER .. f.. g... s ... !

oh ROFL ... now DH is looking at me cos I'm laughing and he won't get it, so why should I explain?

I am the world's worst culprit for this....

I feel cheated

ellipsis

ellipses are squashed circle shapes

You mean, like, ovals?

smart alec. Yeah, but sidey ways. I don't think you can get an upright ellipse. I am not pedantic enough to verify this, however.

I use them a lot. They say 'Hey - you lot know what I'm talking about, I don't need to elaborate'...

I'm sorry, got distracted by reading a chapter of "Five Children and It" to DD and
forgot. The typesetters name for it is apparently, according to Stephen Fry (who would hardly have bothered telling the nation it was a pointer, even if that is the polite name for it) ... The dog's bollocks.

About that link... shouldn't it be "The Whom?"?

Pointydog, an ellipse can have its major axis pointing at any angle.

And ellipses is the plural of ellipsis (I just looked it up - in a real dictionary, with pages n'all).

GrimmaTheNome - thank you for sharing that useful snippet of information. Good name, btw, Grimma is a fab character.

my elipses has been gokked * yours are all so last season.

THE DOG'S BOLLOCKS!

I knew that 'Pointer' answer was too straight forward and dull but I wasn't expecting you to say summat like that!

Cornsilk, I'm stuck in the eighties, what can I tell you?!

The link does say The Whom ?

lolol - fark off you pedants!

But the big letters on the drum lack the question mark.

Pointy - we sha'n't fark off from our own corner. (OK, that was just an excuse to air the beautifully apostrophied abbreviation of "shall not" which is all too rarely seen in the wild.)