# etymology of octothorpe

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-octothorpe/173939
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 8, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-octothorpe/173939 "2003-05-08T18:17:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![bluelava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba9def/32.png) [@bluelava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluelava)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-octothorpe/173939/1 "2003-05-08T18:17:24Z")

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Around the office, we’ve stumbled across a difficult problem. What’s the etymology of the word “octothorpe”? OED lists nothing, and no other dictionary lists anything significant.

One coworker claims it is a cartography symbol for “village”, however this seems dubious and he can find no supporting documentation.

We’ve also found claims that Bell Labs invented the term – [http://www.strowger.net/tel\_tech\_octothorpe.html](http://www.strowger.net/tel_tech_octothorpe.html) – but there’s no verification of this.

Even more importantly to us – what was this symbol called before the term “octothorpe” came around? (Assuming it is a 1960s term.) The symbol was around on old typewriter keyboards long before then.

It would be nice if we could get some assistance in this debate.

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### Author: ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-octothorpe/173939/2 "2003-05-08T18:26:07Z")

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It was called the “at sign” or “commercial at” or “pound sign.” Cecil wrote a column on it, but the search engine is slow today.

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### Author: ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-octothorpe/173939/3 "2003-05-08T18:26:53Z")

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This is long, but it mentions it inside:

[http://www.english-usage.com/faq.html](http://www.english-usage.com/faq.html)

And what kind of uber-geeks do you work with that you would actually be using this word? 😃

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### Author: ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-octothorpe/173939/4 "2003-05-08T18:54:23Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> It was called the “at sign” or “commercial at”

The “at sign,” @ is different than the #, [also known as](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=444244#post444244):  
octothorpe,  
pound sign, (pound from produce and meat weight, not from the British pound £)  
number,  
space,  
sharp,  
tic-tac-toe,  
non add,  
fracture.