tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post129723124886470549..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: hash/pound/number signlynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-42721239117902018282022-03-27T13:59:24.783+01:002022-03-27T13:59:24.783+01:00I don't remember hashtags from my youth (that ...I don't remember hashtags from my youth (that is, from the Fifties onwards), not even when I got typing lessons. They only came into their own when personal computers caught on... in the Eighties, that was.<br />We - the Dutch - call it a "hekje": a small piece of fencing, or maybe a garden gate.<br />A pound sign is no longer shown on the keyboard now, but my fingers still can produce it without thinking: £ (Alt 156). Muscle memory?Petra1945https://www.blogger.com/profile/06559677258676647710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-9444532675776812362017-02-27T12:03:11.442+00:002017-02-27T12:03:11.442+00:00Anonymous from Ohio 22 August - I can't imagin...Anonymous from Ohio 22 August - I can't imagine why you would <i>need</i> to know that, but in my BrE it is called a <i>skid mark</i>.<br /><br />When I (born 1944) learned joined-up writing at school it was called <i>real writing</i>. I remember very little from my childhood but I recall being very excited about learning the real thing!KeithDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10451059429340892054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-15734967625067324452015-08-22T23:55:32.050+01:002015-08-22T23:55:32.050+01:00I came to this comment thread looking for the UK v...I came to this comment thread looking for the UK version of hashmark. Not hashtag or pound or number sign. In my little corner of the American world you will only find a hashmark as a sh!t stain in your underwear. I just need to know the UK or NZ version. Anonymous from Ohio.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-43083521718305451462015-04-09T17:47:03.752+01:002015-04-09T17:47:03.752+01:00I just heard "what is cursive writing better ...I just heard "what is cursive writing better known as?" ("joined-up handwriting") on a rebroadcast of a 1991 trivia show on BBC Radio 4 Extra and thought of you, but you blogged about it five years ago!Erik M.http://xixvek.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-73644260932268818942014-07-01T14:52:55.218+01:002014-07-01T14:52:55.218+01:00The question of pound sign has appeared in the cur...The question of <i>pound sign</i> has appeared in the current <b>Radio Times</b>, where they relate its origin as <b>lb</b> (still the symbols for 'pound weight') with a cross-stroke. I found two internet pages that echoed this, but I wasn't sure they weren't all copying each other until I discovered the Unicode character:<br /><br /><b>℔</b> ........'lb bar symbol' .....Unicode 2114<br /><br />The two pages are <a href="http://1000words1000days.com/2014/01/day-746-punctuation-not-just-for-cartoon-speech-bubble-swears/" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a href="http://blog.dictionary.com/octothorpe/" rel="nofollow">here</a>.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-14858242748862269002014-06-23T11:04:13.888+01:002014-06-23T11:04:13.888+01:00Just an aside, since this is contemporary borrowed...Just an aside, since this is contemporary borrowed/extended usage rather than historical or etymological: In China most gas stations use # on the pumps to indicate the octane content, and it is sometimes used in other contexts to indicate "number", but since the Chinese native "number" sign 号 is placed after the numeral, so is the #. For example, "92#" for 92-octane gasoline, and "0#" for diesel fuel.Satkomunihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15337307743826609867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-41695278648072784642014-06-06T17:22:23.142+01:002014-06-06T17:22:23.142+01:00@ Cameron, Richard, and Solo:
I only ever heard ma...@ Cameron, Richard, and Solo:<br />I only ever heard male co-workers call the little pointing device in the center of a laptop keyboard a "nipple," and then they had the grace to look mildly ashamed of themselves. Seems a bit sexist, yes?<br /><br />Sadly, now laptops have those dadburned touchscreens, which at least on Lenovo laptops is easy to touch when you don't mean to, causing the cursor to jump around annoyingly. Give me a mouse any day of the week.<br /><br />I was taught Zaner-Bloser-style cursive in the '70s in a Virginia elementary school. My children learned a different style of cursive starting in kindergarten. Apparently Montessori schools are holding the line on cursive, which has been omitted from the Common Core State Standards. Everyone I knew called it cursive both then and now.Dianenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-9120142606126275042013-03-04T06:16:09.638+00:002013-03-04T06:16:09.638+00:00Great blog.
I'm Canadian, but was educated in...Great blog.<br /><br />I'm Canadian, but was educated in an English private school until the age of 11 when my parents emigrated.<br /><br />Upon entering university to study engineering in 1965, all new students had to take some basic courses, all of which were taught by civil engineers. The basic stress courses were taught by a man of 78, and we were introduced to the use of # as meaning pound weight. So 678 lbs was written as 678#. A simple notation that old Hoppy said had been in use at least since he went to university in 1915. It was all new to us. Like being a member of a secret society.<br /><br />Of course, in our physics courses, we had to use the metre/kilogram/second system, so we had to have our wits about us.<br /><br />The second civil engineering term we learnt was the kip. One kip = 1000#. So stresses in beams were written in ksi, meaning thousands of pounds per square inch.<br /><br />These meanings (terms) were completely unknown back in the UK where I went in 1969 to obtain my Masters Degree at Imperial College.<br /><br />So the use of # to mean lb goes back at least a 100 years. I doubt it is a Canadianism, much more likely American. How it began I cannot find out, at least on the internet, but that is hardly surprising, since our modern information system is a milion miles wide, but a mere inch deep and riddled with errors.<br /><br />In 1977, Canada went metric, so # and kip disappeared from normal engineering jargon. However, the telecom boys were already at it, under the influence of Bell Labs, changing "point" to "dot". So, for example 23.2kg, which everyone would call 23 point 2 kilograms, is 23 dot 2 kilograms if you worked for the phone company. Why, nobody knows. It was a way for those people to have their own little secret handshake, one presumes. And that is how dot com happened.<br /><br />The North American use of # to mean number, as in #1 is, I believe, a relatively recent usage. I don't recall its usage in Canada in the sixties. We always wrote no.1.<br /><br />So the appearance of # on the first push button telephones in the seventies I also attribute as a plot by the telco boys to have another secret sign, by co-opting the previous usages for their own ends. It made no sense to the rest of the technical world, but it does have the advantage of being distinctive.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00248186954722336850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-12951834794124226362012-11-28T01:04:53.562+00:002012-11-28T01:04:53.562+00:00ecognor1826Not one comment has mentioned that the ...ecognor1826Not one comment has mentioned that the hash sign is a proofreader's mark to indicate a space has to be inserted in the text. It goes back to the beginning of using symbols to mark corrections on proofs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-67394083081353309032012-11-08T12:21:10.713+00:002012-11-08T12:21:10.713+00:00I was relieved to find this blog. As an originally...I was relieved to find this blog. As an originally British person who has lived in the US for 30 years and recently returned to the UK, I was mystified by the term hash sign which people were obviously using to refer to what I knew as the number or pound sign. I do remember when I first went to the US having to get used to writing #25 instead of No. 25 but I have certainly never heard anybody using hash to refer to # in the US. Now I know - thank you for help in readjustment to BrEAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12862192728418773751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-85006415111372344722012-08-25T19:57:14.100+01:002012-08-25T19:57:14.100+01:00As a computer professional of many years standing ...As a computer professional of many years standing I became resigned to the language register of my business being heavily influenced by AmE (even though we invented the damned things!). But I still wince when a '!' is called 'bang' or 'pling': as eny fule kno a '!' is a <b>shriek</b>, always has been, always will be.<br /><br /><br /><br />enitharmonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17829757748223670291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-90003563965780741522011-05-04T02:39:38.415+01:002011-05-04T02:39:38.415+01:00I'm from MN, US. I call it different things de...I'm from MN, US. I call it different things depending what I"m using. When I'm typing on my computer I am usually partial to calling it a number side if I'm referring to phone numbers or when saying typing something like we're #1. However, when on twitter or when writing in print or for all other kinds of reasons, usually at random, I call it a hash tag. I only call it the pound sign when I'm using my cellphone. For the most part I don't do any of this consciously. I really had to think about it to decide what I call that symbol!Cailinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14488618842748985698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-74927272888897381052010-12-08T21:08:43.393+00:002010-12-08T21:08:43.393+00:00Sarah said:
Try speaking Canadian English--or wri...Sarah said: <br /><i>Try speaking Canadian English--or writing it. :) <br /><br />I was taught to spell "honour" with a "u." Yet, my uni/undergrad/college degree was formally spelt/spelled Honors.</i><br /><br />In Australia, they spell "honour" with a "u" yet "honorary" without one, which I think they do just to trip me up. (They also spell "labour" with a "u" unless they're talking about the Australian Labor Party, which has none.)Ali L.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-37340122032979745472010-10-18T19:16:39.899+01:002010-10-18T19:16:39.899+01:00I guess, I'm just a geek for calling it an oct...I guess, I'm just a geek for calling it an octothorp...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-16829928554334850572010-08-02T05:07:04.626+01:002010-08-02T05:07:04.626+01:00Like PW said: Most of us don't use kitchen sca...Like PW said: Most of us don't use kitchen scales at all. The weighing is done at the grocery store. I would feel pretty awkward trying to come up with a pound of flour. I'd have to dig out my big canning scale, which I haven't used in years and years.<br /><br />The "cursive" I was taught in third grade was loosely based on the Palmer method, which is pretty typical for the 1960's. Good thing I already knew how to write, since the Palmer method leaves left-handers out in the cold.Juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14376545097377854998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-65568585682315081872010-07-27T00:23:14.023+01:002010-07-27T00:23:14.023+01:00@ Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)
I caught the joke. ...@ Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)<br />I caught the joke. Mine was supposed to be a joke in response. I guess writing needs to have a tone of voice?PWnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-48814405232552474602010-07-26T15:30:49.544+01:002010-07-26T15:30:49.544+01:00@ PW I think that was partly a joke on Solo's ...@ PW I think that was partly a joke on Solo's part as, in the UK, although weighing people in kilogrammes is increasingly common, we used to weigh in stones as well as lbs - 14lbs equalling 1 stone. For us, saying someone weighs 280 lbs means very little; tell us they weigh 20 stone, and we know at once they have problems!Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-6395463117541116322010-07-26T14:50:41.420+01:002010-07-26T14:50:41.420+01:00Re measuring by weight or volume:
I think in the U...Re measuring by weight or volume:<br />I think in the US the difference might be related both to where the measurement is made and how much is being measured. We don't often have small-scale scales in our homes, so big things like body weight can be done on scales, but small things (such as used in cooking) are done by volume. However, I buy groceries by weight that I later reuse by volume. (e.g. a 10 pound bag of flour used in cups for cooking)<br /><br />@Solo - so if only the morbidly obese are measured by pounds, are the merely overweight measured by cups and the slender measured by teaspoons?PWnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-3583254853706006772010-07-26T10:14:51.183+01:002010-07-26T10:14:51.183+01:00how would you measure weights with a volume measur...<i>how would you measure weights with a volume measurement?</i><br /><br />Now, this is exactly what we Britons don't understand - for us, flour, sugar, butter, etc that you Americans measure by volume are always measured by weight here! So we don't know where you draw the line....Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-18137865751893002732010-07-26T04:57:09.984+01:002010-07-26T04:57:09.984+01:00As for pounds- I thought you Statesians measured e...<i>As for pounds- I thought you Statesians measured everything in cups. Excepy really big things which clearly need a larger unit of measurement than pounds. Like the morbidly obese for example.</i><br /><br />I'm sure your joking, but still, how would you measure weights with a volume measurement? How would one measure the volume of a person? Water displacement?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02215839051185974104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-41657336552206430542010-07-26T02:26:09.250+01:002010-07-26T02:26:09.250+01:00@Tim(CdnEng): Can't say I've ever seen ...@Tim(CdnEng): Can't say I've ever seen 'Nr.1' anywhere. I'd still use No.1 probably. Although I never knew why; your way is more logical.Solohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09740368155249391858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-90544401846293715682010-07-25T12:19:07.794+01:002010-07-25T12:19:07.794+01:00As per Anonymous... When I was about 15 I realised...As per Anonymous... When I was about 15 I realised my handwriting hadn't developed or improved since those cursive lessons at the age of 8, and it looked very childish. So I sat down and deliberately designed a new "typeface" for myself, loosely based on calligraphy, and made the effort to switch. It took about a week to design the letterforms, a year for the new style to become my own, and a decade for it to become really loose and natural.<br /><br />That artificial hand is still my cursive or joined-up writing style, but I also print in all caps quite often, especially when cartooning or doodling. Now that I'm an editor, the two styles come in handy: joined-up for actual text changes, printed caps for remarks.<br /><br />I've noticed that my handwriting deteriorates markedly after just a few days doing nothing but typing. It's surprising how quickly the skill starts to disappear, despite decades of intensive use.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-85412113634968013592010-07-24T07:28:24.086+01:002010-07-24T07:28:24.086+01:00@Solo: We do measure most things in cups. Some thi...@Solo: We do measure most things in cups. Some things don't fit in the cup. Hence, 5# tomatoes, 1c chopped onion, 1T sugar, 2t salt.Juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14376545097377854998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-86506860684073245412010-07-23T16:47:00.572+01:002010-07-23T16:47:00.572+01:00I know it makes me feel very old to hear kids say ...I know it makes me feel very old to hear kids say they have no idea how to use a rotary dial phone. When I first heard it I thought it was pretty pathetic and they must be very stupid, but then I thought "why would they? They've never seen one!" I'm still waiting for the first (no doubt someone will point out it already exists) retro phone to incorporate a dial...Cameron MacDonald Gazzola Blackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11460898271918397890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-4523704464980352012010-07-23T16:29:01.456+01:002010-07-23T16:29:01.456+01:00@Andy J: For anecdotal evidence: while touch-tone ...@Andy J: For anecdotal evidence: while touch-tone phones had been introduced in the 1960s, dial phones were still common in the USA in the early 1980s. By the time I got to (AmE) college in 1994, the presence of a dial telephone in one of the academic buildings was cause for remark. I have no proof, but I suspect that the government-mandated breakup of the Bell System in 1984, when the standard <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_500_telephone" rel="nofollow">Model 500 Telephone</a> was discontinued, was the point that the switch began in earnest.<br /><br />To go way back in the thread to "Waka Waka Bang Splat" (which I remember taped to a dorm room door circa 1997 with the pronunciation included), most of the terms are computer jargon. "Bang" for the exclamation point reminds me that UUCP addresses were known as bang paths, because they routed files in the form "!domain!domain!subdomain!user".<br /><br />I've never seen "splat" for * anywhere outside computer jargon. It's normally "star." The North American telephone code for last call return, *69, is pronounced "star sixty-nine" (if you ever wondered where the R.E.M. song title came from).Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03775279072826816185noreply@blogger.com