If you’ve ever looked at a pencil, a phone, or a Twitter post, you have seen the # sign. On a pencil it’s a number sign. On a phone it’s a pound sign. On Twitter it’s a hash tag. So what do you call an isolated # sign? Number, pound, or hash? The answer is D): None of the above. It’s called an octothorp (or octothorpe). Back in the day, a thorpe was a village. Lazy mapmakers would use the # sign to indicate a village surrounded by 8 fields. Over the centuries, different uses for the symbol resulted in different names. In this technological age, it’s been relegated to being the hash tag symbol. But on playgrounds around the world, the # sign is still the preferred way to play Tic-Tac-Toe. #Octothorp. #BringingItBack.
Critically Rated at 12/17
Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young
criticallyrated 