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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,562 Likes: 1 |
The symbol # is found in the lower right-hand corner of the telephone keypad. Known variously as the “number sign,” the “pound sign,” and the “sharp sign,” it actually has an official name: it is an OCTOTHORP.
Really.
I came across it ten or twelve years ago in a national Sunday newspaper magazine in a Trivia section, and I'm told it’s in the telephone company’s technical manual, too. It’s not in the OED. The nearest thing I’ve come upon is that “thorp” is a medieval word for a town, and that doesn’t have any obvious connection.
It's nowhere on the AWAD page, either, at least not that I can find. Edit 2/26/02: But "octothorpe" is, I find. YCLIU.
Harvard Magazine did a little column on the matter in 1977 or so, but didn't chase down its origin.
Can any of our members shed some light on the derivation of "octothorp"?
With eager anticipation,
wofahulicodoc
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218 |
Seems one etymology of the octothorp has to do with the layout of towns where the eight plots surrounding the common area were populated. “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.” http://www.brodynewmedia.com/Octothorp.html
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
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Joined: Dec 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
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From a Scientific American article  : "Probably not, although the folks at Slashdot, an on-line hacker community, did have a lot to say about Microsoft naming its computing language C#--everyone will argue about how to say “#” (“pound”? “hash”? “octothorp”?), except for musicians, who will pronounce it correctly at first sight as “sharp.” http://www.sciam.com/2000/1000issue/1000cyber.htmlMore useless info about '#' .... In German they call this ol' boy a Gartenzaun (a garden fence) or Doppelkreuz (double cross). Kreuz is fittingly the word for a sharp in musical notation too :-)
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
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How funny... in Spanish we call this the "almohadilla", or "little pillow". I'd never questioned it before! And it's the "hash key" here in the UK as well. 
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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Microsoft naming its computing language C#
C++? (Which really should be ++C but that's a whole nother rant.)
And, regarding "hash"; back in the heady days of computing in the '70s, when no one would ever need more than 4K, we called it "hatch"
# hatch
* splat
! bang
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Joined: Feb 2001
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addict
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addict
Joined: Feb 2001
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# hatch * splat ! bang
you forgot left-banana and right-banana
Rod
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Þorp is from a Nordic origin, but I think has a more general meaning than just ‘field’ – see this as an example of the kind I have come across: thorp 'outlying farmstead or hamlet, dependent secondary settlement'http://ww.archipel.demon.co.uk/Tendring/names.htmlIt is in common use in areas of the north of England where the Vikings settled, passing into both place names and family names – e.g., Althorpe, Diana’s family vault, or Thorpe (English alleged cricketer).
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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USns din't never call em bananas (never knew when to stop spelling bananana); we jus called em parens.
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