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& is made up of the letters E and T (et, and!)
by rangibaby 8y ago
& is made up of the letters E and T (et, and!)
- philwelch 8y agoYes, which is why the & character is supposedly called the "empersand" in Scotland, for "'et', per-se 'and'".
- TeMPOraL 8y ago> "'et', per-se 'and'" I'm having trouble parsing this. What was the meaning of this phrase?
- unhammer 8y ago"The last four letters of the alphabet are ecks, why, zee and 'and' as-one/by itself"
- andrewshadura 8y agoYou probably meant zed.
- jwilk 8y agohttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ampersand https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ampersand has the following etymology for "ampersand": A mondegreen of "and per se and", meaning "and (the character) '&' by itself", which is how the symbol (&) was originally referred to in English. This formulation is due to the fact that in schools, when reciting the alphabet, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A," "I," "O" and, at one point, "&") was preceded by the Latin expression per se (Latin for "by itself"). Also, it was common practice to add at the end of the alphabet the "&" sign, pronounced "and". Thus the end of the recitation would be: "X, Y, Z and per se and." This last phrase was routinely slurred to "ampersand" and the term crept into common English usage by around 1837.
- rowaway93 8y agoThis is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard, is it april fools day? I read about "amper's and". Although I have no idea what an amper is, if memory serves the whole thing is related to merchant short hand, but it cannot get any more ridiculous than this joke somebody is having on you.
- scottmf 8y agoSorry but it’s true.
- jacobush 8y agoIn Swedish, "by itself" is "för sig" that is, quite literally, "per se". (ö and e in "per" pronounced the same, "sig" and "se" pronounced the same.)