Where the ampersand came from

[gallahadesquire]

Since I don't watch the Oscars - are they on tonight? - my mind is wandering.

 

"Today I found out where the ampersand symbol and name came from. The symbol for “&” comes from combination of letters in the Latin for “and”, “et”. Specifically, in Old Roman cursive, it became common to combine e’s and t’s, which produced something like this:

http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ampersand.png

 

Over the next six centuries the ampersand gradually became more elaborate until we get the form of the symbol that is used today:

http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ampersand-progression1.png

The name for the symbol, “ampersand”, didn’t commonly come into use until the 19th century, from “and per se and”, meaning more or less: “and [the symbol] by itself is and”. Classically, when the English alphabet was spoken, “per se” commonly preceded any letter of the alphabet that could be used as a word by itself, such as “A” and “I”, as well “O”, which at one point could be used as a standalone word. Further, the ampersand symbol used to appear at the end of the English alphabet: … X, Y, Z, &. Hence, when spoken: “… X, Y, Z, and per se and”.

 

By the mid-19th century, this led to the symbol itself officially appearing in English dictionaries as “ampersand”. The one exception to this being among Scottish people who traditionally call it “epershand”, which derives from “et per se and”, using the original Latin “et” to refer to the symbol when spoken, instead of the English “and”.

 

This typographical ligature is often falsely credited to famed Roman Marcus Tullius Cicero’s secretary and one time slave, Marcus Tullius Tiro. Tiro developed a stenographic shorthand system that also included a shorthand version of “et”, which preceded the first known usage of the ampersand by about 100-200 years. However, Tiro’s symbol was not the combination of “et”, as the ampersand symbol is, and was different in form than the ampersand symbol, being closer to a modern day 7 or, more aptly, was a backwards capital gamma: http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/rsz_backwards-gamma-e1308282475280.gif

 

Along with the ampersand, this backwards gamma was also once commonly used to replace “and”, though it has gradually faded in popularity with the ampersand symbol becoming more prominent.

[gallahadesquire]

Actually, I did watch the Oscars. It was a rather amusing. I'm happy about SPOTLIGHT getting Best Picture, and all the awards MAD MAX won.

[+ honcho]

Of course, in modern day french their conjunction for "and" is still "et", which you can see in the

titles of some french operas. e.g. Debussy's "Peleas et Melissand".

[AdamSmith]

Accordingly, an early typesetting of "etc." was "&c."

 

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/&c.#English

[whipped guy]

Of course the Italians got rid of the "t" in "et" so and it simply became "e" except before a vowel when it is optional to use "ed" if one thinks that it sounds better. As such etc. & etcetera became ecc. & eccetera respectively as well.

 

Since @honcho mentioned an operatic example my favorite use of the "ed" form is in Bellini's I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, and you should be able to deduce what that's all about! Actually at times the d is omitted, but to my ears it sounds better using ed... as opposed to Ed... or ED as my spellcheck keeps changing it to!