Pound sign (was Re: the Telephone Test)

[Bill Wyatt]

>From article <147 at ixi.UUCP>, by clive at ixi.UUCP (Clive):
> The character that looks like:
> 
>   |  |
> --+--+--
>   |  |
> --+--+--
>   |  |
> 
> 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:
> 
>        --
>       /
>   ---+---
>   ---+---
>     /
>   -------
> 
> (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 ...") ?

Well, that's not a very good rendition of a cursive L with two lines
through it...

But anyway, the character is formally called an `octothorp'. By the
way, it IS commonly used in the US as a `pound' sign. I agree that
`hash' may be more widely understood.

Bill Wyatt, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
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