The Strange History of the Ampersand

The logogram on the left is ubiquitous and easily recognizable throughout the world; it’s “the and sign”. To professionals and lovers of linguistic trivia, it’s the “ampersand”.

What is less known is how it got to be to the place it is today. Here’s a brief history recapitulating the most important areas:

• Its original form was based on the Latin word “et”, meaning, logic will tell you, “and”.
• As it was used in manuscripts in the following centuries, the shorthand form for writing it developed into what we see today.
• At one point it was incorporated into the English alphabet (unofficially, as always with English) as “and”, making 27 letters.
• When reciting the alphabet, it was correct to say “and per se and” (and for itself, i.e. not introducing another item to the list).
• This cumbersome “and per se and” got truncated into “ampersand”, which is its official name as of today.

Tags: alphabet, English, Latin, logogram, punctuation, symbols

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