guillemet

noun

Etymology: From French guillemet, diminutive form of the name Guillaume (“William”), named after French typecutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–1598) who supposedly invented the marks.

1. Either of the punctuation marks « or » (or ‹ or ›), used in several languages to indicate passages of speech. Similar to typical quotation marks used in the English language, such as “ and ”.

   “Guillemets, however, proved popular and remain the key method of indicating quotations in French, Arabic, Italian, Greek and many other languages.”