Even as children, we were taught to recognize the letters of our native language and most common mathematical signs and punctuation marks, such as dash, hyphen -, quotation marks "", brackets () (), etc. However, we often come across signs whose meaning is unknown to us. In this article we will talk about the name of a sign that you can often see in a letter, but cannot understand its purpose.

Keyboard characters

First, let's talk about those signs that you can often find in typographic texts and on the Internet. They are located on your keyboard.

The name comes from two English words: hash - lattice, tag - label. This sign is placed next to a word or phrase on a blog or social network and serves to identify a specific topic to which a post, photograph or video posted on the Internet is related. For example, if you posted a photo of a puppy on your blog, you could use the hashtags #puppy, #dog, #cute, etc. And if another user wants to see photos of puppies, he will only need to enter the hashtag #puppy in the search, and he will be able to see both yours and hundreds of other photos of puppies tagged with the corresponding hashtag.

• & - Ampersand. This sign is used to denote a conjunction or, more simply put, replaces the conjunction “and”. Surprisingly, this sign first began to be used before our era. It became actively widespread in the 8th century. first in handwritten texts, and from the middle of the 15th century. - in printed materials and was used to increase recording speed and compress the volume of written text. It is still used for the same purpose today.
• / - Slash, slash in computer science. This sign belongs to the category of non-literal spelling signs along with the apostrophe (") and hyphen (-). According to the current established norms of the Russian language, it can be used to indicate the relationship of any quantities or parameters to each other (serves as an analogue of the fraction sign and denotes division ); can replace the conjunction “and” and “or”; and can also be used in various abbreviations (railway - railway).
• * - Asterisk, asterisk. The scope of application of such a sign is very extensive. Here are just the main ones: used to create a footnote or comment in the text; three asterisks in a row delimit disconnected passages of text and can replace headings or a title; several stars in a row replace an unprintable word; Also, asterisks replace proper names in the text that should not be known to the reader or that are not important for the thread of the story, etc.

Diacritics

It is worth talking separately about such a phenomenon as diacritics. These are symbols that are used in typography to change the usual outline of a character, or are used in linguistics to indicate that a certain letter of the alphabet is not read according to general rules.

The most striking examples of diacritics in modern Russian are the superscript colon above the letter “е” and the U-shaped superscript in the letter “й”. There are not many such signs in the Russian language. In other languages, there are much more diacritics:

• /-shaped stroke above the letter (á);
• \-shaped stroke above the letter (à);
• a cap over the letter (â, zh͡j);
• a bird above the letter (ž, ě);
• // above the letter (ő, ű);
• \ over the letter (ѷ);
• superscript circle (å);
• superscript dot (i, j, ṁ);
• tilde over letter (ã, ñ);
• a bar above the letter (ā);
• apostrophe (a");
• title (а҃);
• colon after the letter (a:);
• various tails on top, bottom and sides of the letters (Ҙ, Ȩ, Ҳ, Ҭ, ɦ, Ơ, Ư), etc.

In the Russian language, the word ampersand is recognized only by the Lopatin Russian Spelling Dictionary. It is almost impossible to find references to the sign in the literature of the pre-computer era due to its extremely rare use in the Cyrillic typesetting. In the “Brief Information on Typographic Business” (St. Petersburg: 1899) it is called “a sign replacing the conjunction “and””, in the “Handbook of Printing Technologists” (M.: 1981) - “a conjunction sign”.

The authorship of the ampersand is attributed to Marcus Tullius Tiron, a devoted slave and secretary of Cicero. Even after Tyrone became a freedman, he continued to write down Ciceronian texts. And by 63 BC. e. invented his own system of abbreviations to speed up writing, called “Tironian signs” or “Tironian notes” (Notæ Tironianæ, the originals have not survived), which were used until the 11th century (so at the same time Tiron is also considered the founder of Roman shorthand).

The ampersand has been actively used by scribes since the second half of the 8th century, and by typographers since the middle of the 15th century.

Curiously, & is used not only in Latin texts, but literally in all European books - in English, French, Italian.
For example, in Italian:
Between the ridiculously completed ampersand on the left and the ordinary one on the right, almost all transitional forms are visible. At the compositor at the checkout, the letters & were different in style, so that the strip would not ripple in the eyes.

Sometimes (out of poverty) in the absence of an ampersand in some font, it was sculpted from improvised means - say, from eights And With. The result was an emoticon that looked like “a very surprised Taras Bulba”:
Evolution of the Ampersand
When pronouncing the alphabet, before the letters, which, in addition to sounds, were also words, they pronounced per se (lat. in itself). They said, for example: and, per se I, so as not to confuse the letter with the pronoun “I”.

The last one was &, about which they said: and, per se and (and, in itself “and”). Such a construction simply had to become more adapted to frequent and rapid pronunciation, and already in 1837 the word ampersand (isamapasei) was recorded in dictionaries.

Ampersand is one of the most unique typographic symbols. What is an ampersand, how did it arise and where is it used?

Everyone knows that the symbol «&» replaces union "And". But not everyone knows what this sign is called "ampersand". And very few can boast that they know how the ampersand arose and what it stands for. But this symbol has a long and interesting history.

Definition
Symbol ampersand, or & , is a graphic abbreviation of the Latin conjunction et, which translates into Russian as “ And". If you look closely, these two letters are e And t- can be seen in the ampersand symbol, especially in italics. Hence the name: "ampsand" is a simplified expression from "and per se and"(union and as such). In the specialized literature you can find several more names for this sign. In the Brief Information on Typographical Affairs, for example, it is called a sign that replaces the union “and”, in the “Printing Technologist's Handbook” it is called a conjunction sign, and in the “Proofreader and Editor's Reference Book” it is called “a special companion sign, a kind of ligature” . This sign is used in almost all European languages, and at the beginning of the 19th century it even occupied a place in the English alphabet, however, it was the last letter in it.

History of origin
The history of the ampersand began in the first century AD. I came up with this sign Mark Tullius Tiron, devoted slave and secretary of Cicero. In 63 BC. e., in order to have time to record the philosopher’s speeches, Tyrone invented his own system of abbreviations, called "Tyronian signs" or "tyrone notes". So at the same time, Tyrone is also considered the founder shorthand.

Since the second half of the 8th century, the ampersand has been actively used by scribes, and since the middle of the 15th century, typographers have also adopted it. Moreover, this symbol could be found not only in texts in Latin, but also in literally all European books - in English, French, Italian.

The first versions of the symbol looked simply like the Latin letters e and t glued together, but later, with the development of typewriting and printing, the symbol became more and more stylized and less and less similar to the original version. This is what the ampersand looked like before and looks like now.

As you can see, the modern version of the ampersand remains virtually unchanged from the symbol developed in the ninth century at the Carolingian court in France. Later, during the Renaissance, cursive ampersands emerged along with cursive fonts. They had a more elegant appearance than the standard Carolina ones.

Design
In modern ampersand design, despite the centuries-old history of development, the fusion of the letters e and t is still visible. Here are some examples of modern spelling:

Application
The ampersand is very firmly entrenched in our lives. In Russian, the ampersand is used to give a connotation of foreignness: just as a hard sign at the end of a word is used to emphasize the pre-revolutionary nature of its spelling. The & symbol can be found in titles corporations, companies, brands. In such cases, it is pronounced as “end” (in foreign names) or “and” (in Russian names). For example, Head & Shoulders - Head & Shoulders, M&M's - Em & Ems, Work & Salary - Work and Salary.

The ampersand is also found in mathematics into the meaning of logical “and”, conjunction, union. The & symbol is often used in online communication, usually in place of the conjunction “and” in text messages and on Twitter. But besides such popular areas of application of the ampersand, there are also more narrowly focused ones, for example, programming, in particular in MySQL, XML, SGML and BASIC.

The ampersand can play an important role in design. In printing, using this sign in titles or headings will add graphicness to the article or text, especially if it does not contain images. This improves the appearance of the text and its perception. An italic variation of the symbol will add elegance to the design.

For some people, the ampersand has simply become an object of love and worship. They try in every possible way to surround themselves with things associated with this symbol. There are sites on the Internet entirely dedicated to the ampersand. Clothes with images of the “&” symbol are extremely popular. Many people wear tattoos of this sign on their bodies. The interesting shape makes the ampersand a common design element. There is an amazing number of objects in the world associated with this symbol. Here are some examples of using the ampersand symbol in real life.

Ampersand is the name of a symbol that is actively used in everyday life. But not everyone knows what the corresponding sign looks like. What does it even mean? Below we will tell you everything about the ampersand. This symbol did not have any name until the 19th century. And only in the middle of the corresponding century, he began to appear in official English publications.

Definition

The ampersand is a symbol denoting the Latin conjunction et. A similar designation appeared a long time ago. Its inventor is considered to be Marcus Tullius Tiron, a student of Cicero.

Until the 19th century, the ampersand had no official name. All this time, the mentioned symbol denoted the expression and per se and.

What is an ampersand? This is how the conjunction “and” was and still is meant. The symbol being studied has several different meanings. The definition of a sign will vary depending on the area in which it is applied.

On the letter

The ampersand symbol is used very often in writing. It, as you might guess, denotes the conjunction “and” (or English and).

The & sign can be seen in the names of companies and various brands, as well as in ordinary sentences. Most often, the symbol is either read as “end” or skipped altogether. For example, the company name M&M's.

In computers

The ampersand is a sign that is found not only in writing, but also in various computer programs and applications. It has many purposes.

Here are examples to help you understand what & is used for:

1. In Excel, the corresponding symbol is used as a concatenation of text lines. In this case, MS Excel recognizes & as part of the code. To print the character you are studying in a cell, you need to use a double ampersand.
2. In HTML, the & symbol is used to denote special characters. We are talking about an extended table of unique text elements. For example, you can insert the code © into the text with html. If you process it, a "copyright" sign will appear on the screen.
3. The ampersand sign in the Yandex search engine helps you search for information using advanced filters. If you type & between words, the search engine will display results in which the specified words are within the same sentence. If you put &&, the search engine will display pages that simply contain the phrases specified in the search string.
4. In other search engines, the ampersand sign serves as a logical "and" symbol.
5. In programming, & is often used as an operator of one kind or another. More detailed information on the use of this symbol will have to be studied for each programming language separately.

Some users use & when composing emojis. This is not the most common option, but it also occurs.

Exact sciences

The ampersand is a unique sign that often represents the conjunction "and". In the exact sciences & is not so rare.

For example, in mathematics it stands for the logical "and". This is a conjunction, an association. This is the definition that is considered true in the exact sciences.

Keyboard typing

Now that it is clear that the ampersand is a special character used in writing in different areas, it is worth thinking about printing it. Handwriting & writing is easy. With computers everything is much more complicated.

The first way to print an ampersand. Necessary:

1. Switch keyboard layout to English.
2. Click on Shift.
3. While holding the corresponding button, press button 7 on the number row above the main alphabet.
4. Release keys.

After these steps, the ampersand symbol will appear in the text editor. The same is true for typing a character on the on-screen keyboard.

Special insert

In Word, you can use a feature called Paste Special. This is a fairly common method, especially if, for some unknown reason, putting an ampersand from the keyboard does not work.

To set & you need:

1. Open Word and set the print cursor to the desired position on the page.
2. Go to the "Insert" - "Symbol..." section.
3. Find the & symbol in the window that appears and double-click on it.

It is done. You can find the ampersand in To do this, you need to go to “Start” - “All Programs” - “Accessories” - “System Tools”.

Encoding to help

What is an ampersand? This is the name for the symbol of the conjunction “and” or “logical and” in the exact sciences. The symbol is actively used in writing, including in electronic files and textbooks.

To insert & into your text document, you can use its Unicode or HTML encoding. There are different styles of writing the symbol. And therefore there is no single code for &.

For example, here are several “Unicodes” for printing the learned character:

• U+0026 is a regular ampersand character, used most often;
• U+FE60 - small &;
• U+FF06 - stretched ampersand.

A complete list of & codes with examples of its execution can be found in the Unicode, ASCII or html reference books.

Now it’s clear why the ampersand symbol is needed, as well as how to write it in a particular case. This is a common unique character that can be printed using both a special insert on a PC and from a keyboard.

Ampersand sign- This is a unique phenomenon in typography, but in our daily life it is used incredibly rarely. And if it were not for the creativity of our copywriters, many of whom are trying to replace the simple conjunction I with this sign, we would not be familiar with it at all. But what does this mysterious miracle look like? The ampersand actually looks like “&”. But even those who knew this for sure without a hint will probably not say where this interesting icon came from and what it meant at the very beginning.

The ampersand is a graphic abbreviation for the Latin conjunction, which is written as et.

And if this short word is translated into Russian, then we will get the very conjunction I that was mentioned above. And if you look closely at the & icon itself, then if you have the imagination, you can easily see these two letters - e and t.

But if everything is clear with the icon, then where did such a strange name come from - ampersand? But this can also be explained. In fact, the word ampersand is an abbreviated or simplified combination of letters from the expression “and per se and”, and yet this very long word was the name of the same conjunction I.

The ampersand sign is found in almost all European languages, but in England at the very beginning of the 19th century it was even included in the alphabet, although it was written down at the end of the alphabet.

History of the ampersand sign

If anyone thinks that the ampersand was invented in the last century or even the year before, then he is deeply mistaken. In fact, this “miracle” appeared before the birth of Christ, that is, in the period BC. The sign was invented by no one else, but himself Mark Tullius Tiron(103 BC - 4 BC), a former slave, and then the best friend of Cicero, who wrote his biography, a collection of his sayings and even anecdotes. This man also invented Roman shorthand, which was called “Tyronic Badges.”

The ampersand sign received its rebirth in the 8th century, when it was actively used when copying books and manuscripts. And starting from the 15th century, it was already used not only in the Latin language, but also in England, France, and Italy.

But the first versions of this sign were not similar to the modern badge. But as time passed, printing and printing actively developed, and the ampersand sign changed with it. And today’s & icon is completely different from its ancestor, to whom it owes its existence.

Modern use of the ampersand

The & sign (ampersand) can be found quite often today. In our language, it is used to give an inscription or phrase a foreign connotation. In the same way, a hard sign at the end of words is used to emphasize pre-revolutionary nature. If the ampersand sign appears in the names of foreign companies, corporations or trademarks, then it should be pronounced as and (end). And if this is the name of a Russian company, then the ampersand here is pronounced like I. For example:

1. Head&Shoulders.
2. M&M's.
3. Work&Salary.
4. Harry & Tonto.
5. John & Jane.
6. YOU&HE

Nobody argues, it looks beautiful, but only if the ampersand is written next to foreign letters, but the last example - YOU&HE - is what many will read as “you and he”, and this is exactly what the section is called in one famous and widely published magazine. In this case, the & sign looks simply ridiculous here.

But if you use this symbol in a smart way and do not make some kind of cult out of it, then it can make the text look graphic, especially when there are no more pictures in it. This can improve the appearance of the text and give it elegance.

By the way, on the Internet you can find entire sites dedicated to this symbol. And there are many people in the world who are so fond of decorating their home with objects with an image &, which can be depicted on pillows and blankets, on slippers, a cosmetic bag, a plate. And especially ardent adherents are ready to wear jewelry that exactly resembles the & symbol and even bake original buns of the same shape.

But the ampersand is not only used by creative designers and advertisers. This symbol can still be seen in mathematics and programming, in particular in languages ​​such as MySQL, XML, SGML and BASIC.

It would seem, what could be so unusual about such a simple & symbol? But in fact, behind it lies a long and interesting story, which is probably unfamiliar to many. It turns out that even a simple symbol can become a real hero of a publication!