Re: the pound sign

[Tommy Trussell <twt -at- CEI -dot- NET>]

[This is my second attempt to post a response -- please excuse the bandwidth!]

>Could any of you tell me what the actual name of the
>pound sign (#) is?  I thought it was octothorp (sp?),
>but I haven't been able to find it in the dictionary
>or in any of my reference books.

I believe "octothorpe" is the symbol on a telephone dial that looks like an
asterisk.  I learned the term in graduate school, but cannot find a print
source to confirm the spelling and usage.

Nowadays most people seem to call the * telephone key "star" because it's a
one-syllable word, making for shorter voice-mail instructions.  (Imagine:
"Press octothorpe seven zero to retrieve your messages." "...Huh?")
Besides, surely everyone who cares about such things cringes to hear the *
symbol called "asstrick."

The pound sign is also called the number sign, and the difference is the
placement.  For example: #3 = "number three"  and  3# = "three pounds"
(Source: Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1981 edition.)  "Pound" is
one syllable, and it seems to have become the more common name for that
telephone button.

Some apparently call the # symbol "hash," which I suspect is a typesetter's
shortcut to verbally distinguish it from the "Pound Sterling" symbol.
Copyeditors use # as the "insert a space" symbol.  Children use a large #
symbol to play Tic-Tac-Toe (AKA "Naughts and Crosses").  <grin>

                     --Tommy Trussell

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