How to read the mathematical notation for multigraphs?

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How to read the mathematical notation for multigraphs: $$E \rightarrow V \cup[V]^2 $$

$E$ is a set of edges

$V$ is the set of vertices

I am having trouble especially with this part $$[V]^2 $$

Source:

(Reinhard Diestel, Graph Theory 5th Edition, Springer, p.28 )

A multigraph is a pair $(V,E)$ of disjoint sets (of vertices and edges) together with a map $E →V ∪ [V ]^2$ assigning to every edge either one or two vertices, its ends. Thus, multigraphs too can have loops and multiple edges: we may think of a multigraph as a directed graph whose edge directions have been ‘forgotten’. To express that $x$ and $y$ are the ends of an edge $e$ we still write $e = xy$, though this no longer determines e uniquely.

(Reinhard Diestel, Graph Theory 5th Edition, Springer, p.28 )