We all know the common names for most of the non-alphanumeric characters on our keyboards.
’ = apostrophe
= asterisk
& = ampersand
= hyphen
: = colon
; = semicolon
~ = tilde
Some of them have both common names and names that aren’t so common. For example, / is commonly called slash but is also known as “virgule”.
I seem to remember that # and @ have names other than “pound sign” and “at sign”, but I don’t remember what those names are. I’m not so sure about ? and !, but these might also have alternate names (i.e. not “question mark” and “exclamation point”).
Does anyone know what these alternate names are?
If there are less common names for $ % = and +, those would be interesting as well.
@ I always call an “at symbol”, but I’ve also heard/read about it being called an “ampersat” and an “atmark” (neither of which dictionary.com recognises). It has lots of names in other languages, as you’d expect.
# is never called a pound sign in my country because we use £ for pounds sterling and lb for a pound in weight. The # is called a “hash”, a “number symbol” or an “octothorpe”. There’s a Doper called that too IIRC.
! is called a “factorial symbol” for mathematical use, and also “ping”.
The @ is generally known as “at” or “business at” although there may be another term with which I am unfamiliar.
Willard Espy has written a poem giving the various names that the # character is given when it is used in a wide variety of applications:
___ Many offices encumber
____ My diurnal rounds;
1. Before a digit, I'm a #; **number**
2. _ After digits, #; **pound**
3. In a printer's proof, a #; **space**
___ While, if at the harp
__ You should pluck me from my place,
4.__ I would be a #. **sharp**
5. In one game, I'm #; **tic-tac-toe**
6.__ An # on phones; **octothorpe**
7. In business, I'm #, although **non-add**
8._ A # when in bones. **fracture**
Hari: It’s the ampersand, you infinite yutz. Here’s the story: Back in the Good Old Days of rote learning, when comprehension was de-emphasized, it was known by its full name, and *per se* and*,' meaning and which means and.’ Then, it was more or less a letter of the alphabet, and so was recited ad nauseum by less-than-careful students who didn’t have a clue what per se meant. So it mutated in their mouths into `ampersand.’ As you prove, this mutation is continuing among the unlearned.
Like everton mentioned in the second reply to the OP, I have heard of the @ being called an ampersat. My thinking is that someone thought they were being really clever, and since & is called an ampersand, @ should be called an ampersat.
Also, the symbol . is commonly called a full stop. If written backwards, as in . , it is known as a full back stop, and is often used in baseball notation. It can also be written upside down, like this:
.
In that case it is called an inverted full stop, which essentially connotes movement or a sense of going. Usually inverted full stops are grouped together in rows of three, … , forming what is known as an elipsis.
I should also mention that there is no such thing as a reverse asterisk (*). I cannot tell you how many times I have seen it used in writing, and how much such displays of abject ignorance depress me.
CzechHistory411, excellent points, though I’m inclined to think that while I’d never use one myself, the reverse asterisk will someday supplant the regular one (which will then itself become a mistake.)
On a more higher-pitched note, I would like to point out that there is a difference between a # and a sharp sign (as it would appear on written music). The sharp sign is written with two straight vertical lines crossed by two lines at a slight angle with horizontal (to see this, look at # and tilt your head to the right (or turn your monitor upside down, and then a little tilted to the left).
Or, you can look a little ways down on this page : history of notation, which also makes a claim for the sharp sign’s origin.
This is not to deny that # isn’t widely used to mean sharp, since it’s the closest thing in ASCII and most fonts. Even Microsoft, though they don’t want you calling their language by any name other than C-sharp, uses C# all over the place.
I just wanted to point out that out in case you’re ever forced to write music and don’t want it looking funny. (Also - don’t use b for flat when you do it. It is okay to use lower-case L for 1 ).
Czech-History411 reminds me of the secretary at a famous university that will remain nameless who, faced with the notation )0,1( (for an open interval if you want to know), left them all out because she only had the other direction on her typewriter. True story.
A typewriter was an ancient machine for producing machine-like type. I actually used to own one.