Pound sign (was Re: the Telephone Test)

[Sean Malloy]

In article <147 at ixi.UUCP> clive at ukc.ac.uk (Clive) writes:
>The character that looks like:

    <graphic of character variously called pound, number, hash deleted>

>is a "number" sign or a "hash" sign. It is NOT repeat NOT a pound sign.
>A pound sign is what appears on a five pound note, and looks like:

    <graphic of character denoting pounds sterling deleted>

>(or some more ornate version). How would you like it if I kept
>saying:
>       dollar include stood eye oh dot aitch
>(I actually say "hash include ...") ?

The reason the '#' character is called 'pound' is because it has been
used to denote a _weight_ in pounds, i.e., 16#, 20#, etc. The
character you call a 'pound sign' is properly a 'pounds sterling
sign', and denotes an amount of money, just as the "Y with an equals
through the upright" is a 'yen sign' and also refers to an amount of
money. And a Sudanese pound is referred to as 'SdL', so 'L' would be a
'pound sign' in Sudan for precisely the same reason you claim. Is the
British claim to a specific character any better than the Sudanese claim?


In usage in America, the '#' sign is called a 'pound sign' through
common application. @BEGIN(FLAME) And if you're so bloody righteous
about using the proper terminology for characters, why couldn't you
take the trouble to determine that the _correct_ name for the '#'
character is 'octothorp'? @END(FLAME)


 Sean Malloy					| "The proton absorbs a photon
 Navy Personnel Research & Development Center	| and emits two morons, a
 San Diego, CA 92152-6800			| lepton, a boson, and a
 malloy at nprdc.navy.mil				| boson's mate. Why did I ever
						| take high-energy physics?"