octothorpe

[J. Katherine Rossner]

At 12:08 PM 6/29/00 -0400, Mark Mandel wrote:

>I have read that the name was given by a telephone company (Bell, at the time)
>engineer who needed a name for the damn thing as a glyph -- a character, apart
>from any significance that might be attached to it -- and combined "octo-" for
>the number of "arms" it has with "Thorpe", his own surname. But I can't give a
>cite.

I've read (possibly in William Safire's column?) that the "thorpe" part
refers not to a surname but to the "fields" into which the octothorpe is
divided.  Though that doesn't make sense, unless the central square is
omitted...

Katherine
--
Ye knowe ek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
Withinne a thousand yere, and wordes tho
That hadden pris, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem, and yit they spake hem so.
        - Chaucer, "Troilus and Criseyde"