Latin: what is the sideways "6" over a word?

[VotM]

Recently I've reached the point where my ancestors' marriage allegati are starting to reveal records in Latin. For the most part I've been able to glean the information I need from them.

One puzzling item. I frequently come across somthing that looks like a sidewise "6" overtop a word. It most frequently occurs over the "u" in a word that looks like "Prus". See the highlighted word in the attachment.

Could someone please explain what the symbol is used to indicate? Thanks!

[liviomoreno]

It means that the word is an abbreviation. In the sample you posted it looks like the abbreviation of Patrinus (godfather)

[VotM]

Patrinus makes sense in the overall context of the entry. Thanks for the clarification!