OT: The ampersand invasion

The # key is the 'pound' key in the USA, I think it's pounds weight.

It demonstrates the connection between hash and LSD.

(c) Old Jokes 'R' Us.

I've always wondered: do Americans write "10 #" where we would write "10 lb"? I realise that they write "#10" to signify "10th" - ie an ordinal number. Are there any other units where they use a punctuation sign rather than the normal abbreviation (lb, oz, cwt, in, ft, etc).

It's interesting that the word is "hashtag" and not "poundtag", given that Twatter (sic!) presumably started in the USA.

I've also heard "#" called "gate" - I think it's mainly telecommunications jargon, though I'm not sure whether it's specifically GPO/BT or whether it is called that in other English-speaking countries. I remember a BT operator telling me to press "gate four seven" (fictitious number) to access some exchange service. She was rather miffed when, after some clarification ("WTF is the gate key?" was my first thought), I said "Ah, you mean the hash key": she responded rather sniffily with "we don't call it *that* here" as if I'd uttered an obscene word ;-)

you tube is at it now

We didn't have the @ symbol on PC (i.e. DOS) keyboards in Italy until mid 90s (it was on the Mackintosh because "think differently").

However, strangely enough, we used to have the pound symbol, which for us was simply the old "lira".

Source: memory.

And we adopted it when Julius Caesar invaded us :-)

I recall that being used mainly for UUCP paths, as indeed it still is in some places.

e.g. Path: uni-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!2.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!eternal- september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail

Wot? Next to you?! I bet your (sic) one of those who say 'could of', 'should of'. :)

In the spoken set-up menu on my answer-phone it refers to 'square' and 'star' for # and *

Hmmm...

I always understood that the term "ampersand" applied to the character "&".

And that the character "@" was correctly an "asperand".

Do you get many coconuts for £1?

libra.

That's different.

A colleague of mine always referred to an exclamation mark as "Shriek", especially when used as 'Factorial' as in '200!' It made sense.

No, they write #10 to indicate "Number 10". So, if you live in appartment 5 in an appartment building at 25 Duckbill St, then the first line of your address would be:

I was told off by the postie once for not expressing it thus.

And 'bored of', without a doubt.

Wasn't it also known in publishing circles as a 'Screamer' ?

And it apparently used to be classed as a letter of the alphabet.

It supposedly comes from a corruption of a ligature formed from the E and the T from the Latin "et". Schoolchildren apparently used to chant the alphabet in school and would end up with ", X, Y, Z and, per-se, And." which became "Ampersand".

As do many internet forums. Often used to highlight someone's previous contribution without having to quote it and causing the forum software to notify them of a mention - such as "Thanks for the ideas @Mark and @John. I'll give them a try".

I remember a freind who said he 'couldn't code in C' because his Apple didnt have the {} symbols on the keyboard.