Which linguistic symbol inspired the famous red 'M' in Merriam-Webster's dictionary logo?

Dictionaries have been our trusted companions in language learning and usage for centuries. Their logos often contain subtle nods to linguistic history, etymology, or symbolic representations of language. This poll tests your knowledge about the design thinking behind one of the world's most recognizable dictionary logos and its connection to language history. Can you identify the correct origin story?

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It represents a pronunciation mark from Noah Webster's original American Spelling Book
It's designed to resemble a phonetic transcription bracket from the International Phonetic Alphabet
It symbolizes the 'meaning' bridge connecting words across languages in their first bilingual edition
It's modeled after the scribal marks used by early lexicographers to denote word origins