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number sign
(encz) | number sign,mřížka n: [it.] Pavel Novák |
number sign
(gcide) | octothorp \oc"to*thorp\, octothorpe \oc"to*thorpe\, n. [octo-
eight + thorp Etymology of thorp uncertain. (ca. 1965). See
quotes below. Possibly derived from octalthorpe or octotherp
(once used by the Bell System?).]
A typographic symbol (#) having two vertical lines
intersected by two horizontal lines. It is also called the
crosshatch, hash, numeral sign and number sign; in
the U. S. it is commonly called the pound sign, especially
to designate the symbol as used on digital telephone dials,
but this can be confusing to Europeans who think of the pound
sign as the symbol for the British pound. It is commonly used
as a symbol for the word number; as in #36 (meaning: number
thirty-six).
[PJC]
For the following explanation, I am indebted to Michael
Quinion, whose World Wide Words web site
(www.quinion.com/words) is a fascinating and invaluable
resource for anyone interested in words and their
origins.
Anyone who has ever used a touch-tone telephone has
seen the octothorpe. It's that little tic-tac-toe
symbol in the lower right corner of the keypad, right
across from the asterisk (which the telco folks, in
their infinite wisdom, insist on calling a "star").
According to a Bell Laboratories engineer named Ralph
Carlsen, the octothorpe and asterisk keys were
developed in the early 1960s and originally intended to
be used only to access computer systems via a telephone
line. The octothorpe symbol itself had already existed
for many years, although it was usually called a "pound
sign" or "number sign" because it was often used in
commerce to designate weight or quantity.
According to Ralph Carlsen, a fellow Bell Labs engineer
named Don MacPherson invented the term "octothorpe"
when faced with the task of explaining the new
touch-tone phones to corporate users. MacPherson chose
"octo" (Latin for "eight") because there were eight
points on the symbol.
"Thorpe" is indeed an Old Norse word meaning "village,"
often found in the names of English towns, but that was
evidently not the source in this case. According to
Carlsen, "thorpe" was chosen because at the time
MacPherson was involved in a campaign pressing for the
return of legendary athlete Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals
from Sweden..
--Word
Detective
(http://www.word-detective.com/072999.html#octothorpe
[accessed
20090708]
[PJC]
octothorp
Otherwise known as the numeral sign. It has also been
used as a symbol for the pound avoirdupois, but this
usage is now archaic. In cartography, it is also a
symbol for village: eight fields around a central
square, and this is the source of its name. Octothorp
means eight fields.
--Robert
Bringhurst
(The Elements
of Typographic
Style (2d
edition,
1996), Hartley
& Marks,
Publishers,
Point Roberts,
WA; Vancouver,
BC, Canada, p.
282)
[Joel Neely] |
number sign
(foldoc) | number sign
hash.
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