halant

Meanings

1. A diacritic used in most writing systems of the Indian subcontinent to signify the lack of an inherent vowel.
2. A sign which serves the same purpose in any writing system.
3. A character which binds consonants into a conjunct or some other form of visual combination which is prototypically a visual indication that the first consonant does not have an implicit vowel

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindi हलंत (halant). The computing sense arises from the diacritic sense through the use in ISCII of the same computer character to act, depending on context and font capabilities, as either a visual diacritic or as a control character modifying a pair of consonants.