octothorpe

English

WOTD – 15 October 2007

An octothorpe

Alternative forms

• octothorp

Etymology

Origin disputed. There is no known usage before it was adopted by Bell Labs in the late 1960s or early 1970s, so most sources agree it was coined by someone at Bell Labs, but accounts from Bell Labs personnel conflict on the details. The derivation as a traditional term from octo- (“eight”) and thorpe (“field, hamlet or small village”) lacks any evidence, but there is near universal agreement that the first element refers to the number eight. Eight is derived from the number of ends of the lines. Thorpe could be reference to Jim Thorpe, as one proponent was a fan of the athlete.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒktəʊθɔːp/
• IPA^(key): /ˈɑːktoʊθɔːɹp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

octothorpe (plural octothorpes)

1. (chiefly US, typography) The hash or square symbol (#), used mainly in telephony and computing.
   • 1973, U.S patent application ser. no. 05/422,816 (filed Dec. 3 1973), issued as patent no. 3,920,926 (Nov. 18, 1975), Telephone Data Set Including Visual Display Means, col. 3 (first published use of the word)

     ...the octothorp (#) key generates a command to send the contents of the memory unto the telephone line through a send circuit...

   • 1982, Willard R. Espy, A Children's Almanac of Words at Play, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., page 230

     Octothorp is the # on a push-button telephone. Rumor at the telephone company is that a man named Charles B. Octothorp, wanting to make his name famous...

   • 2004, Andrew Pitonyak, Openoffice.Org Macros Explained, Hentzenwerke, page 139

     Strings are enclosed in double quotation marks, numbers are not enclosed in anything, and dates and Boolean values are enclosed between octothorpe (#) characters.

Synonyms

• hash, octothorn, pound sign, number sign, tic-tac-toe sign, noughts and crosses sign/symbol, sharp sign [music]

Translations

octothorpe — see hash

See also

• #
• sextile

Further reading

• Number sign on Wikipedia.Wikipedia