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
