In UNIX the location of an object is described in a series of directory names separated by slashes, for example:
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal
The top directory is your startup disk, or root directory. The root directory location appears as a slash (/). The directory contained within the root is listed to the right, and each lower-level directory is listed to the right of its container and is separated by a slash.
If an item is located in your home directory, the path may be shown beginning with a tilde (~).