The ampersand, at sign, and pound sign are symbols that we use regularly. Even so, their origins and rules of usage might surprise you!

1. Common Symbols
THE HISTORY AND USAGE OF

2. 01
The ampersand symbol is a logogram; in
written language, a logogram is a character
that denotes a particular word or phrase.
The & symbol represents the conjunction
and, which is used to grammatically connect
words or phrases.
The Ampersand
&
&

3. The ampersand symbol actually comes from the
Latin word et, which means and. Linking the letters
e and t created the ampersand symbol. Today, the
ampersand symbol still signifies the word and.
The word ampersand, however, is actually a lot
newer than the symbol itself—more than 1,500
years newer. When the ampersand symbol was
added to the English alphabet in the early 1800s,
reciting the alphabet became tricky, as ending it
with and was awkward. So schoolchildren would
say, "X, Y, Z, and per se and," since per se means by
itself. Of course, merging these words creates the
word ampersand.
WHERE DOES THE AMPERSAND COME
FROM?
&

4. So How
Do You
Use It?
You shouldn't use the ampersand in formal
situations, although academic usage depends
on the preferred or requested style guide.
Ampersands are most commonly seen in
business names; in the academic world, you
might use an ampersand to join author
names in an in-text citation or list of
references, such as in APA style. You might
also use an ampersand to address a letter or
in a screenplay. However, the word and is
most commonly preferred.

5. 02
The @ sign, read aloud as at, was
originally most often used in
accounting to mean "at the rate
of." Today, the at sign is most
commonly used in electronic
communication.
The At Sign @
@

6. The at sign is known to have been used by monks and was
possibly even invented by them to speed up the transcription
process (which was, of course, done by hand). Using the at sign
helped them to decrease the number of pen strokes necessary to
communicate the same information. It's also likely that the at
sign originated from à, which means at in Italian.
The at sign was also once used as an abbreviation for amphora.
The amphora was a unit of measurement for large terra cotta
jars of the same name that were used to ship wine, spices, and
grain. The unit later took on a role in commerce to mean "at the
rate of," where it is still used today.
WHERE DOES THE AT SIGN COME
FROM?
@

7. So How
Do You
Use It?
The at sign is used today in commerce
and in electronic communication. It is
logically used in email addresses and
across social media. It's also used in
informal speech to signify the word at,
but this should definitely be avoided
in formal writing.

8. 03
The pound sign, the number sign, or, more
recently, the hashtag are all the same symbol (#).
It comes from the Latin abbreviation for weight,
lb, standing for libra pondo, which means "pound
by weight." Calling it "the number sign" originated
in Britain, as the name pound was confused with
the British currency (i.e., pounds). Today, it is
often referred to as the hashtag, and it also has
different meanings for musicians, proofreaders,
and computer coders.
The Pound Sign #
#

9. The official name of the pound sign is the octothorpe, a word
invented in factories that manufactured telephones. In the
1960s, the telephone keypad was modified to include the pound
sign, and octo was used to refer to the eight ends around the
edge of the symbol.
The use of thorpe is a little less clear; it could be named after
famed American athlete Jim Thorpe, it could be a nonsense
word, or it could refer to the Old Norse word "thorpe," which
means farm or field.
The word hash is actually older than octothorpe. But only
recently have hashtags been popularized across social media,
especially Twitter, to tag topics of interest on networks to more
easily track and find posts on certain topics. According to
Benjamin Zimmer, an American linguist and lexicographer,
Stowe Boyd was the first to coin the term hashtag in a blog post
in which he referred to the use of the hash symbol to tag topics
on Twitter.
WHERE DID THE POUND SIGN
COME FROM?
#

10. So How
Do You
Use It?
The pound sign is more commonly used in
informal contexts. As mentioned above,
musicians may use the sign in reading music
(as it indicates a sharp), proofreaders might
use it to designate the insertion of a space, and
computer coders can use it to mark comments
or commands in programming language.
Clearly, the usage of the pound sign varies; it
is still seen on telephone keypads, but you can
also use it to mark hashtags on Twitter.

11. You can't use the symbols &, @,
or # in most formal contexts,
but the ampersand symbol, at
sign, and pound sign are all still
in use today, and only time will
tell how these symbols and
meanings might morph in the
future.

12. Thank You
FOR READING!
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13. Image Sources
Slide 1: OpenClipart-
Vectors/Pixabay.com
Slide 3/4: irenne56/Pixabay.com
Slide 6/7: Châu Thông Phan/Pexels.com
Slide 9/10: Pavan Trikutam/Unsplash.com
Slide 11/12: KaboomPics/Pexels.com
Slide 13: OpenClipart
Vectors/Pixabay.com
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