# On the phone why is it # called 'pound'?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 30, 2006, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096 "2006-12-30T08:56:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/1 "2006-12-30T08:56:52Z")
It is called ‘hash’ in Australia. Why again ?
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### Author:  [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/2 "2006-12-30T09:08:40Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
It is called ‘hash’ in Australia. Why again ?
[/QUOTE]
As in the shorthand for the weight measure, used mostly in butcher shops and grocery stores.
Ex. 1# = 1lb = 1 pound
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### Author:  [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/3 "2006-12-30T10:02:39Z")
[QUOTE=hekk]
As in the shorthand for the weight measure, used mostly in butcher shops and grocery stores.
Ex. 1# = 1lb = 1 pound
[/QUOTE]
I am not sure you are explaining how we get ‘hash’ from #.
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### Author:  [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/4 "2006-12-30T10:46:44Z")
In the UK I’ve not seen or heard of people calling # a pound sign
A pound sign would make people think of £ (currency)
On old printers the # would convert into £ if a particular dip switch was set
We would call # ‘hash’ although ‘number sign’ would be understood.
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### Author:  [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/5 "2006-12-30T10:49:06Z")
To quote the [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign) article:
> [@](#):
>
> Keith Gordon Irwin in, The Romance of Writing, p. 125 says: “The Italian libbra (from the old Latin word libra, ‘balance’) represented a weight almost exactly equal to the avoirdupois pound of England. The Italian abbreviation of lb with a line drawn across the letters was used for both weights. The business clerks’ hurried way of writing the abbreviation appears to have been responsible for the # sign used for pound.”
So the unique US way actually makes sence but why call it a “Hash” sign outside the US ?
[Etymology Online](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hash) has an idea, but that sounds apocryphal, but [Wikipedia](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hash#Etymology) does repeat the information.
The word hash seems to generally mean food that are chopped up and / or mixed together, so a symbol with lines going in every direction does fit the connotation.
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/6 "2006-12-30T10:50:19Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
I am not sure you are explaining how we get ‘hash’ from #.
[/QUOTE]
No, he was answering your subject line question, explaining about how we get pound from ‘#’
FRDE - A butcher’s pound is different from a british pound sterling. Just sayin’
As far as ‘hatch’ - a # sound is an example of artistic crosshatching on a small scale - filling an area with lines in perpendicular directions
That’s all I’ve got so far.
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### Author:  [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/7 "2006-12-30T11:09:38Z")
[QUOTE=chrisk]
FRDE - A butcher’s pound is different from a british pound sterling. Just sayin’
[/QUOTE]
I’m pretty sure that I’ve not seen a UK butcher using # instead of ‘lb’
Actually I’ve a suspicion that ‘hash’ might be derived from ‘hatch’
-
# is a crosshatch
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/8 "2006-12-30T11:20:36Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE]
I’m pretty sure that I’ve not seen a UK butcher using # instead of ‘lb’
[/QUOTE]
If they did, we’d be calling it a pound sign, too 😛
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### Author:  [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/9 "2006-12-30T11:31:33Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
If they did, we’d be calling it a pound sign, too 😛
[/QUOTE]
Nice one.
- having two pound signs would be interesting
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### Author:  [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/10 "2006-12-30T12:20:48Z")
# was not a common sign in England before the advent of computers. I’ve always called it octothorpe
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/11 "2006-12-30T13:28:34Z")
[QUOTE=Mk VII]
# was not a common sign in England before the advent of computers. I’ve always called it octothorpe
[/QUOTE]
That’s the technical designation for that typographical character, in much the same sense that \* is properly an asterisk, though people are as apt to say “star” if not more so.
The principal uses of the octothorpe seem to be as symbolic representation of (a) pound avoirdupois, the weight (as opposed to pound sterling the monetary value, which uses the script L), and (b) the term “number” as prefixed to a numeral, specifying the ordinal location in sequence. (“She placed #8 among over 500 girls entering the contest, a quite respectable showing.” “Please solve problem #6 and have your proof ready for discussion tomorrow.”)
This – “/” – by the way is a virgule.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/12 "2006-12-30T13:50:27Z")
Before it became popular as a lb sign I called it a number sign.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/13 "2006-12-30T13:54:53Z")
We used to call it “hash” here too, then in the sixties the damn hippies smoked all those buttons, so we had to call it something else.
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### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/14 "2006-12-30T14:10:39Z")
# is octothprpe and \* is sextile in phone terminology, at least acording to a retired phone guy I am aquainted with.
Brian
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/15 "2006-12-30T14:57:35Z")
Here in Colombia it means “number”, as in Calle 34 #10-12. The way we define addresses here.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/16 "2006-12-30T15:07:10Z")
[QUOTE=N9IWP]
# is octothprpe and \* is sextile in phone terminology, at least acording to a retired phone guy I am aquainted with.
[/QUOTE]
That would fit in, date-wise, with the history of those terms given in Wikipedia - [Number sign - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign#Names_in_English_speaking_countries_apart_from_the_USA)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/17 "2006-12-30T15:10:50Z")
Native Southern Californian here. I grew up calling it a ‘number sign’.
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### Author:  [@scott62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott62)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/18 "2006-12-30T15:16:11Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp]
This – “/” – by the way is a virgule.
[/QUOTE]
Mrs scott62 here,
Civil Servants, or at least the ones I used to work with called “/” oblique and ‘#’ gate. I used to refer to ‘#’ as hash and got some funny looks from my colleagues!
So if “/” is a virgule what on earth is an oblique?!?!?!
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### Author:  [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/19 "2006-12-30T18:37:29Z")
So, is this how you write a pound of hash ##?
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-phone-why-is-it-called-pound/386096/20 "2006-12-30T18:44:35Z")
1# # £1
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