[Ads-l] Antedating of "Ampersand"

[Michael Quinion]

> This is also very probably the first appearance in print of the idiom "from
> A to ampersand", meaning the whole range of a subject. As this idiom is
> recorded into the twentieth century, it long outlasted the saying of the
> alphabet with "and per se and" as the last item.

A revised item about "ampersand" is now on my site, with Fred Shapiro's 
find included:  http://bit.ly/1xsiaxh  .

--
Michael Quinion
World Wide Words
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

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