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Signs and Symbols, used in English Language

What is the origin of various symbols used in English, and 

when is the use of each appropriate? Here’s a guide to 

twelve common signs, including how they developed and 

in which contexts they are used or avoided.

 & (Ampersand)

The ampersand was, at least until well into the nineteenth 

century, treated as the twenty-seventh letter of the 

alphabet, but its star has fallen, so that now it is used only informally except in registered names of businesses 

(“Ay, Bee & See Inc.”), which should be written as rendered; 

a comma preceding it is extraneous. The symbol comes 

from the cursive formation of the Latin word et (“and”), 

and the name is a slurring contraction of “and per se and, 

” which used to terminate schoolroom recitals of the 

alphabet: 

The phrase means “and by itself and”; instead of reciting, “. . . 

W, X, Y, Z, and,” children said, “. . . W, X, Y, Z, and per se and” 

to clarify that “and” referred to a list item rather than serving 

as a conjunction for an item that was left unuttered. 

The symbol is also seen in &c. (“et cetera”), an alternate 

form of etc.

American Psychological Association (APA) style allows the 

ampersand to link author names in an in-text citation 

(“Laurel & Hardy, 1921”), but other style guides call for 

using the word and.

 * (Asterisk)

The asterisk is used to call out a footnote or to refer to an annotation of special terms or conditions, to substitute for 

letters in profanity (“Oh, s***!”) or a name rendered 

anonymous (“the subject, M***”), to serve as a low-tech alternative to a typographical bullet, or provide emphasis 

in place of boldface (“Do *not* go there — 

the food is awful.”). 

It also has many specialized technical usages. Its name 

is derived from the Greek term asteriskos, meaning 

“little star,” and it was originally applied to distinguish 

date of birth from other references to years.

 @ (At Sign)

Until the age of e-mail, the at sign was restricted mostly to commercial use, in purchase orders and the like, to mean 

“at the rate of” (“Order 1K widgets @ $2.50 per.”). It’s also 

used in displays of schedules for competitive sports to 

identify the event venue. Now it’s ubiquitous in email 

addresses and in social- networking usage, as well as 

computer protocols, but outside of in those contexts, 

it is considered inappropriate for all but the most 

informal writing.

 

¢ (Cent)

This symbol for cent (from the Latin word centum, meaning “hundred”), unlike its cousin the dollar sign — it’s also used 

in many monetary systems other than that of US currency 

— is rare except in informal usage or for price tags. When 

it does appear, unlike the dollar sign, it follows rather than precedes the numeral, though as in the case of the dollar 

sign, no space intervenes. The equivalent usage in a context 

where dollar signs are employed is to treat the amount as a 

decimal portion of a dollar (“$0.99”); for clarity, a zero should always be inserted between the dollar sign and the decimal 

point. The sign probably originated to distinguish an ordinary 

c from one denoting a monetary amount.

 ° (Degree Sign)

The sign for degrees of arc or degrees of temperature, which 

started out as a superscripted zero, was chosen for consistency 

with use of the minute (') and second marks ('') employed in 

geometry and geography; those symbols originally stood for 

the Latin numerals I and II. The degree sign appears in technical 

contexts, but in general-interest publications, the word degree 

is generally used. In references to temperature, the symbol 

(and the designation of the temperature scale) immediately f

ollows the associated numerical figure (“45°C”). This style is 

true of many publishing companies, though the US 

Government and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures prescribe a space between the number and the 

symbol (“45 °C”), while other publications omit the first 

letter space but insert another between the symbol and 

the abbreviation (“45° C”).

 

 

 ” (Ditto Sign)

The ditto sign, first attested three thousand years ago, 

signals that text shown above is to be repeated, as in a 

list in which the same quantity of various materials is 

intended to be expressed:

Apple              24

Banana             ,,

Orange             ”

 

The word ditto, meaning “said,” derives from the Tuscan 

language, the immediate ancestor of Italian, but was 

borrowed into English hundreds of years ago. The word, 

its abbreviation (do.), and the symbol are considered 

inappropriate for most writing, though the term has 

often been used in informal spoken and written language 

to mean “(the same as) what he/ she said.” Although the 

symbol has a distinct character code for online writing, 

straight or curly close quotation marks are usually 

employed to produce it.

 $ (Dollar Sign)

This symbol for the American dollar and many other 

currencies was first used to refer to the peso, which 

inspired the American currency system. Various origin 

stories for the symbol come in and out of fashion, but 

it’s most likely that it developed from an abbreviation of 

pesos in which the initial p preceded a superscript s; 

the tail of the initial was often superimposed on the s. 

A dollar sign with two vertical lines is a less common 

variant.Most books and other formal publications tend 

to spell out dollars in association with a (spelled-out or 

numerical) figure, but periodicals usually use the symbol, 

as do specialized books about finance or business or 

others with frequent references to money. In 

international publications, when the symbol is used, 

for clarity, it is combined with the abbreviation US 

(“US$1.5 million” or “US $1.5 million”).

The dollar sign is also used as an abbreviated reference 

to various functions in computer programming and 

similar contexts.

 

 # (Number or Pound Sign, or Hash)

This symbol evolved from the abbreviation for pound, lb. 

(a literal abbreviation for the Roman word Libra, meaning “balance”), in which horizontal lines were superimposed 

on the vertical lines of the letters, producing something 

like the tic-tac-toe pattern used today. One of many others 

names for the sign, octothorp (also spelled octothorpe or otherwise), was a jocular coinage by telecommunications 

engineers in the mid-twentieth century. The symbol is 

seldom used outside informal or highly technical or 

otherwise specialized contexts.

 

 % (Percent)

The sign for indicating percentage developed in the 

Middle Ages over the course of hundreds of years, 

beginning as an abbreviation of percent (from the 

Latin phrase per centum, meaning “out of a hundred”). 

Its use is recommended only in technical contexts or 

in tabular material, where space is at a premium. 

(Some standards authorities call for a space between 

a number and this symbol, but most publications and

publishers omit the space.)

 

 ~ (Tilde)

The tilde is used as a diacritical mark over various letters 

to indicate a variety of sounds in different languages, 

but it also appears midline, like a dash (and is sometimes 

called a swung dash), to denote “approximately (“Last 

night’s attendance: ~100”). It has technical connotations 

as well and is even used as a notation for recording 

sequences of action in juggling. The name, borrowed 

into English through Portuguese and Spanish from Latin, 

means “title.”

 

 / (Slash, Solidus, Stroke, or Virgule)

During the Middle Ages, this sign of many names, 

including those listed above, served as a comma; a 

pair denoted a dash. The double slash was eventually 

tipped horizontally to become an equal sign and later 

a dash or hyphen. (The equal sign is still used as a 

proof-reader’s mark to indicate insertion of a hyphen.)

The slash — also called the forward slash to distinguish it 

from the backslash, which is used only in technical contexts

— is an informal substitute for or.

_ (Underscore or Under strike)

This artefact from the era of the typewriter was used on 

such devices to underline words to indicate emphasis in 

lieu of italics. 

As a survival of that function, words are sometimes 

bracketed by a pair of single underscores in email and 

other computer contexts to mark a word for emphasis 

(“That band totally _rocked_ the place.”). Indeed, as I 

typed this post in Microsoft Word, the program 

automatically converted rocked to italics. The symbol 

also appears frequently in email and website addresses 

and other technical contexts.