How was ampersand pronounced?
The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram &, representing the conjunction “and”. It originated as a ligature of the letters et—Latin for “and”.
| Ampersand | |
|---|---|
| Type | Logographic and Ideographic |
| Language of origin | Latin language |
| Phonetic usage | /et/ /æn(d)/ /æm.pə(ɹ).sænd/ |
| Unicode codepoint | U+0026 |
Why is ampersand called ampersand?
That very first ampersand was a ligature—that is, a character consisting of two or more letters joined together. Its creator was joining the letters e and t, of the Latin word et, meaning “and.” “And per se, and” eventually evolved into ampersand, the word we know and love today.
What does the ampersand symbol mean?
An ampersand is a shorthand symbol for “and.” It looks like this: & . The word ampersand is a mix of Latin and English and a condensed version of the phrase “and per se and,” which means “(the character) ‘&’ by itself is ‘and’.”