(OK-tuh-thorp) noun

The symbol #.

I always called it the pound sign. I knew that the Ampersand was the & symbol, but I never knew that the # had a name. Okay, okay, I'm a little out of control with fascination at this remarkable turn of events, but come on, did any of you know that it had a name?


And, here is its name-creation story: In the early 1960s, Bell Labs introduced two special keys in its innovative touch-tone telephone keypads, "#" and "*", for which it needed fresh names. Having eight points, "octo-" was an obvious first element. Since the engineer involved in introducing this innovation was active in a group seeking the return of Jim Thorpe's medals from Sweden, he whimsically added "-thorpe", creating octothorpe. (Jim Thorpe was disqualified because of his professional status, but his medals were restored posthumously.) The "#" is also known as a pound sign, crosshatch, number sign, sharp, hash, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, gate, hak, oof, rake, fence, gate, grid, gridlet, square, and widget mark.]