I grew up calling the symbol the “number sign,” which matches its usage for #1, #2, and so forth, and contrary to what the Wikipedia article claims, I did not get that usage from Canadian sources. My very American mother also called it that when referring to the symbol in its appearance on a typewriter keyboard. The sudden appearance of instructions to use the “pound key” on a telephone keypad therefore came as a surprise to me. It was only later that I first started noticing its use to represent “lb” in designations of weight, though I can understand that it was already in use long before I paid attention to that usage. I have heard (though not using the terminology myself) it referred to as a “hash sign” before it came to be a “tag” in internet applications. For clarification, I am of mixed British-American parentage, and took my secondary schooling in a British school in Hong Kong.
cdward about 11 years ago
He was a real twit(ter).
Dennis Johns about 11 years ago
Died from being ran over by a Woolly Mammoth while “texting” / “tweeting”….
jack fairbanks about 11 years ago
he died of canine incontinence? apparently exposed during his last kennel stay…
loner34 about 11 years ago
Yeah, to me a pound sign (#) is a pound sign. Hash is something good to eat (if it is made right).
dagan about 11 years ago
my tombstone will readOOPS
dflak about 11 years ago
Here ya go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign – all you’ll ever want to know about this multi-named symbol. #who cares
gorbasche2 about 11 years ago
Now if only the Hashtag ITSELF would die. A horrible…. miserable…. slow…. death.
Jeff0811 about 11 years ago
I like yours, mine would be a little shorter,
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Swalb%515 about 11 years ago
Etched in stone….
JP Steve Premium Member about 11 years ago
August 23, 2007?
How Twitter’s hashtag came to be
gocomicsmember about 11 years ago
I grew up calling the symbol the “number sign,” which matches its usage for #1, #2, and so forth, and contrary to what the Wikipedia article claims, I did not get that usage from Canadian sources. My very American mother also called it that when referring to the symbol in its appearance on a typewriter keyboard. The sudden appearance of instructions to use the “pound key” on a telephone keypad therefore came as a surprise to me. It was only later that I first started noticing its use to represent “lb” in designations of weight, though I can understand that it was already in use long before I paid attention to that usage. I have heard (though not using the terminology myself) it referred to as a “hash sign” before it came to be a “tag” in internet applications. For clarification, I am of mixed British-American parentage, and took my secondary schooling in a British school in Hong Kong.