Both Peirce in 1880 and the American logician H. M. Sheffer in 1913 realized that the truth-functions of elementary logic could all be defined from a single function. Defining p / q to mean neither p nor q, p / p is equivalent to not-p, (p / q )/ (p / q ) means p ∨ q, and so on. The sign for this truth-function is Sheffer's stroke: p / q is true only when p is false and q is false. A functionally complete system can also be built from a single sign for the function that is true when p is false or q is false.
Philosophy dictionary. Academic. 2011.