AMPERSAND (&)
Have you ever said the word “ampersand” and the person you’re talking to has no idea what you’re talking about? Or are you the person who has no idea what the crazy person saying “ampersand” is talking about? Well I’m here to clear up any confusion. The ampersand is a logogram, which represents the word “and”. A logogram is a picture or symbol, which represents a word, the most famous logograms being Egyptian hieroglyphics.
So where did this wacky little symbol & come from? Well you see, the word “and” in Latin is “et”. Through time the word “et” evolved into the symbol & as shown below:
In some modern fonts, the origins of the ampersand symbol can still be seen. Like in the Trebuchet MS version seen here: &
Okay, so that takes care of the symbol &, but where does that silly word “ampersand” come from? The word “ampersand” is derived from the phrase “and per se and”, with “per se” meaning “by itself”. In the glorious days of yesteryear, whenever kids recited the alphabet, they added “per se” to any letter that could itself be a word (such as A, I, and &, which was added at the end of the alphabet at the time). So if you replace the first “and” in the phrase “and per se and” with the symbol for “and” while throwing in an equal sign for good measure you get “& by itself = and”. Feel free to read that again if it doesn’t make sense. It took me about a dozen times before it sunk in. Got it?
“& by itself = and” = “and per se and” = “ampersand”
Now here’s something I learned a few years ago, and I still think about it every time I see it. In the credits of a movie, if there is more than one screenwriter and they are separated by an &, it means that they worked together on the screenplay. If they are separated by the word “and” it means they worked separately, usually involving the studio passing around the draft to get it reworked. You’ll never look at the screenwriters’ credit the same way ever again.
NOW TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW.
The symbol # is sometimes called the octotherp (or octothorpe). The etymology of this is questionable, but it most likely is a nonce word created by engineers at Bell Labs in the early 60s. See Douglas Kerr’s article for related historical background.
The # symbol is called the “number sign” in the ASCII specifications; in the US, it often is called the “pound sign”. The surrealist in me is intrigued by Kerr’s initial suggestion for it: “diamond”.
It’s completely unknown why “m” is used commonly for slope, as in y=mx+b. The story that it comes from the French monter (to climb) has no evidence: the earliest known use of the symbol “m” in this way is in a British text from 1844 [although I read a quote on a less reputable source that it had been used 100 years earlier] and the earliest use of the word “slope” itself in this sense is in the “Mathematical Dictionary and Cyclopedia of Mathematical Science”, published in 1855 in New York. Go New York!
I used the word “ampersand” the other day and one of designers was like “Huh?” And I was like “Huh with the huh?” And he was all “What?” And I was like “Crazy-say-what?” And then he accused me of using 8th grade humor. Which I denied, but it was totally true.
Had I had this Puntabulous post last week, we could’ve avoided the entire scene.
As a huge typography follower, this was a fascinating post.
Very interesting and I love how Vagina Girl is here to teach me…I think I am falling in love with her….
My turn: “Teen Depression Worsens with Marijuana Use
A new report from the US Office of National Drug Control Policy has concluded that depressed teens who self-medicate by using marijuana risk compounding their symptoms. Also reported was the fact that depressed teens are more than twice as likely as their non-depressed peers to abuse or become addicted to the drug. Smoking marijuana was also found to increase the risk of developing mental disorders by more than 40 percent.”–Call me crazy but that article makes me sad…
I learn something new every day. Never did I dream that a vagina would be teaching it to me today.
And, to teach you something:
Did you know that if you send me your bank account information, the Prime Minister of Nigeria will allow me to deposit $20,000,000 into your bank account?
Craig, I *LOVE* Teach Me Something Tuesday.
I’ve read that Nepal is the only country whose flag is not square or rectangular shaped.
Columbus (my humble city) hosts the annual ComFest, the largest free, non-corporate urban music and arts festival in the United States. The event spans a three-day weekend in June and is run entirely by volunteers.
Best weekend of the summer. Near-naked people *everywhere.* (it’s legal in Columbus for women to go topless) (although for most it’s best if they didn’t…)
So there’s *two* things you didn’t know.
I think the only reason most Americans know what the ampersand is due largely to the fact that Pat would announce it any time Vanna turned it over.
The names of the Gilligan’s Island characters:
The Skipper – Jonas Grumby
The Millionaire – Thurston Howell III
His Wife – Eunice Wentworth (Lovey) Howell
Ginger – Ginger Grant
The Professor – Roy Hinkley
Mary Ann – Mary Ann Summers
Gilligan’s name was never mentioned in the series – not even in the pilot, but years later Sherwood Shwartz, the producer, mentioned that if he had to give Gilligan a name, it would be “Willy.”
http://www.clubampersand.com/
That place looks so cool. And it’s in amsterdam. I will be instantly in love with anyone who takes me there.
Vagina Girl rules! Here is something specially for her. A Gyneflex is a vaginal exerciser that works 100 times better and faster than kegels. It’s like crunches for the vagina. It will make her better and stronger!
ooooh amy, you leave so much to the imagination with your comment….
My useless information for the day: On this day in 1926 Bea Arthur was born
I am also in love with teach me something tuesdays…
The only thing i’ve got to offer is that Ampersand is the name of Yorick’s capuchin monkey in the awesome comic book “Y The Last Man.” I’m partial to monkeys to begin with but he’s definitely one bad ass character and that is one bad ass comic book. Seriously, i cried after finishing the last one (the series a few months ago). Give it a read!
Yay! Grammar nerdiness!
This delightful symbol # is alternately known as: “hash” – as in brownies
“pound” – which confuses some British folks who think of £ as pound; stemming from a quirk of some printers that conflated the abbreviation “lb” in such a way as to look like #
“sharp” – in music, indicating a half-step above a note
“number sign” – primarily limited to ignorant Americans
“square” – like my parents
“mesh” – like my sexy underwear
And my favorite…
“octothorpe” – which (debatably) was invented by an employee if Bell Laboratories in the 1960s in honor of athlete Jim Thorpe.
Aagh! I should read the comments before posting. TwoPi so beat me to this. I feel lame now. I’ll go hide under a rock.
Great facts everyone!
Amy: So all these years of doing kegels were useless?
Jere: It’s okay! We won’t make fun of you TOO much!
I know nothing about grammar myself, but I will tell you that I think this very well may be the first, and hopefully last, time I’ve learned anything from a vagina.
And Dave S., the festival is called “ComFest”? Geez, I think I have a porno by that name. Not sure if they have abs like yours though.
HUGS….
I’m pretty much amazed right now.
ComFest — as in Community Festival — not that gooey stuff that smells funny. Though I don’t doubt for a second that you wouldn’t stumble across some as people in the park get more and more drunk…
(actually “stumble across” probably isn’t right — maybe “slip and fall in”…?)
Ew. Sorry.
Funny, my friend Andy was just talking to me about going to ComFest this year. If I end up making the trek downstate with him, I will not be wearing a Vagina girl t-shirt.
Yeah! Come to Comfest, Adam! (note: “to” not “at”) I run a Columbus local music website, so I’m in music heaven all of Comfest weekend! And if you make it down here, be sure to look me up.
did you know that the word “temblor” is really just a spanish term for an earthquake? But it has totally become en vogue to say when describing them in news reports.
Also, earthquakes are made up of compression waves (p-waves) and then more traditional back and forth waves (s-waves). And THEN the surface of the ground can move as either Love waves or Rayleigh waves depending on the slip motion and type of quake.
I dont know about anyone else, but I much prefer the Love waves when I’m doing the slip motions.
Just sayin….:)
HUGS…
Polt, you’re a funny man.
I love when I see &c. for etc.
I dont know if this has been said before
but the Alphabet song and the “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” have the same beat
Go ahead and sing em both
Movies have writers? Well, I did learn something today.
Here’s a fact. Bea Arthur is older than Estell Getty, who played her mother on “The Golden Girls.”
I actually knew about the origins of & and “ampersand” from a little podcast call “Podictionary”. It tells about the origins of common words in the English language. I love it, because I am a huge nerd like that.
Technically speaking, some hieroglyphs are logograms but most of them are actually phonograms. And some do double duty, depending on context.