Pound sign

[Derek Lee-Wo]

In article <782 at osf.OSF.ORG> dbrooks at osf.org (David Brooks) writes:
>I lived in England for 33 years, and I never ever ever ever saw # used
>for pounds weight -- always lb.  I still find # = pound mildly
>irritating, but I defer to Websters for American usage.

I think using # for weight is probably an American tradition. I'm from
a Commonwealth country, and like you, I've never used # for weight. We always
used lbs.

Before I started College in the US (3 years ago), I always called the symbol
'#' hash. Since I've been here, I've been calling it a pound.

All of these discussions seem rather pointless. If I were to say, type
a hash, or a pound, or a number sign, everyone would know what I meant, even
though we all have our prefered name for it. 

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|Derek Lee-Wo, Health Systems International, New Haven, CT 06511.             |
|E-mail address :- derek at hsi.com      ...!yale!hsi!derek                      |
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