It also has its uses in computer programming languages as well as math. Craftsmen & Wolves or Hoefler & Co.)Īnother fun little fact that we discovered in researching this article: the phrase et cetera, most often expressed as etc. The way we’re probably all most familiar with is its use in formal or business titles, like law firms or these days hipster restaurants and upscale goods stores (i.e. Though it was derived so long ago, the ampersand has most definitely found its place in contemporary culture. The pre-split logo from Hoefler & Frere-Jones (Now Hoefler & Co.) Their ligature for the word et looked a bit more like the current number 7, and still survives to this day in Ireland and Scotland. Tironian is the name of a different system of writing, a sort of shorthand for Latin taught in monasteries.

To make it just a little bit more confusing, the ampersand isn’t the only symbol used in the middle ages to represent the concept of ‘and’. But it was added to dictionaries starting in 1837. Over time, it was dropped from the alphabet, like many fascinating characters before it.

British schoolchildren in the 1800s would recite the alphabet, concluding with “X, Y, Z, and per say &.” They inserted the “per say” so to indicate ‘&’ was by itself rather than ending the string of letters with a hanging conjunction.Ĭlearly it wasn’t a perfect solution, as over time the children slurred the words together to create the word ampersand. The word ampersand evolved by a process called mondegreen - when a new word comes from the common mistaken pronunciation of something else. Part 2 of 2: Evolution of the Ampersand from Jan Tschichold’s The Ampersand: its origin and development (via .uk)

That symbol evolved over time, and by the Renaissance had developed into the calligraphic symbol that we’re so familiar with now. When ancient Roman scribes were scribbling away in Roman Cursive around the 1st century AD, they had a tendency to connect to two letters into a ligature. It was once the 27th letter of the alphabet, derived from the Roman word for and: ‘et’. In a twist on the traditional story, the logogram ‘&’ came way before the word it now represents, ‘ampersand’. Part 1 of 2: Evolution of the Ampersand from Jan Tschichold’s The Ampersand: its origin and development (via .uk) But what’s the origin of the mysterious and ubiquitous ampersand? How can you choose which one is the best version to use? Read on to uncover all you wanted to know about this ancient tool of text: Origin of the ampersand

The ampersand in caslon font