pronunciation of #

[tom reingold]

On the subject of "pronunciation of *", jje at virtech.uucp (Jeremy J.
Epstein) writes:

$ I worked with someone many years ago (hello Bob Knight) who insisted
$ that the "#" was called an octathorpe (which my edition of Webster has
$ never heard of).

Bob Knight must have either worked for the Bell System or heard this
from someone who did.  I quote someone who has been in the Bell System
(or its remnants) for many years:

	Back in the early 60's, touch tone phones only had 10 buttons.
	Some military versions had 16, while the 12 button jobs were
	used only by people who had "diva" (digital inquiry, voice
	answerback) systems -- mainly banks.

	Since in those days, only Western Electric  made "data sets"
	(modems) the problems of terminology were all Bell System.  We
	used to struggle with written descriptions of dial pads that
	were unfamiliar to most people (most phones were rotary then.)
	Partly in jest, some AT&T engineering types (there was no
	marketing in the good old days, which is why they were the good
	old days) made up the term "octalthorpe" (note spelling) to
	denote the "pound sign." Presumably because it has 8 points
	sticking out.  It never really caught on, and lives on only in
	the memories of us old crocks.

		"One Who Was There"

This seems to be a little-known story.

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