Why does some email forwarded have this symbol before each sentence > and what is it called?

Why does some forwarded email begin with this symbol > and what is it called

It's called "greater than". It's a mathematical symbol. Used in inequality equations.

For example, 4 > 0. That reads as "four is greater than zero."

The reason some forwarded e-mails use it is to indent plain text of the original e-mail. This is to show what was in the original e-mail.

For more information:

Greater Than Symbol: Definition and additional resources from ZDNet

Bracket - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It works kind of like the quote bbcode this forum uses

Email:
>Quoted text
>Usually from a reply
>sometimes from a forward

Actual text sent to you doesn't have those...


Forum:

Quote:

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Quoted text
Usually from a reply
Sometimes from a forward

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Actual message doesn't have any formatting.