From Slate’s Has modern life killed the semicolon?: “The 1737 guide Bibliotheca Technologica recognizes ‘The comma (,) which stops the voice while you tell [count] one. The Semicolon (;) pauseth while you tell two. The Colon (:) while you tell three; and then period, or full stop (.) while you tell four.’ Lacking standards for how punctuation shades the meaning of sentences—and not just their oration—18th-century writers went berserk with the catchall mark.” [Hat tip to Dave for putting punctuation on my radar]