Word Designators (zsh)

#### 14.1.3 Word Designators ¶

A word designator indicates which word or words of a given command line are to be included in a history reference. A ‘`:`’ usually separates the event specification from the word designator. It may be omitted only if the word designator begins with a ‘`^`’, ‘`$`’, ‘`*`’, ‘`-`’ or ‘`%`’. Word designators include:

`0`

  The first input word (command).

n

  The nth argument.

`^`

  The first argument. That is, `1`.

`$`

  The last argument.

`%`

  The word matched by (the most recent) `?`str search.

x`-`y

  A range of words; x defaults to `0`.

`*`

  All the arguments, or a null value if there are none.

x`*`

  Abbreviates ‘x`-$`’.

x`-`

  Like ‘x`*`’ but omitting word `$`.

Note that a ‘`%`’ word designator works only when used in one of ‘`!%`’, ‘`!:%`’ or ‘`!?`str`?:%`’, and only when used after a `!?` expansion (possibly in an earlier command). Anything else results in an error, although the error may not be the most obvious one.