> ... pound sign. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes including the designation of an ordinal number and as a ligatured abbreviation for pounds avoirdupois – having been derived from the now-rare ℔

For me a pound is 500g = weight of half a liter water at sea level; with a liter = 1000 cm³ (yes the metric system is sooo boring ;)

The pound sterling OTOH is much lighter nowadays ;)

Yes, I remember when I was a child, some People would abbreviate the german word for pound (weight) - "Pfund" - like this, which seems to be derived from ℔ (or "\N{L B BAR SYMBOL}") and has a very rough resemblance with "#".

In America, the telephones have

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
* 0 #
[download]

When I got started on Unix I thought "hash" was programmer slang, like "bang" is for the exclamation point. I picked it up and started using it out of a desire to join programmer culture. Now I've just learned it was a Brittish-ism :-)

every voice menu I've ever heard has called it "press pound sign for..."

In Germany, the phone key # is usually called "Raute". And it drives me nuts for decades, because a Raute is a Rhombus. But people have misnamed it for decades, and so it became an official name. It has several other, better names, see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelkreuz_(Schriftzeichen).

Alexander

--
Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)

> the phone key # is usually called "Raute". ... because a Raute is a Rhombus.

That's because the original sign on the telephone was NOT a # but ⌗ (Unicode: U+2317 viewdata square). Often inclined it looks like a rhombus ⌗ °

The # is only a replacement symbol, which made it to the computer keyboard because of it's American use for numbering things.

The official German name I use for # is Doppelkreuz (literally "double cross")

Doppelkreuz is also a name for other symbols like the Patriarchal_cross but that's hardly relevant in an IT context.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the 𐍀𐌴𐍂𐌻 Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

°) look at that pic of an old phone, to discover a rhombus with overshots at the corners https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AT%26T_push_button_telephone_western_electric_model_2500_dmg_black.jpg

In America, the telephones have...

I had to get up the dial pad on my mobile to check 😃
But it's the same here in the UK - at least it is on my Chinese-manufactured mobile!

When I got started on Unix I thought "hash" was programmer slang, like "bang" is for the exclamation point. I picked it up and started using it out of a desire to join programmer culture. Now I've just learned it was a Brittish-ism :-)

...and one we've exported to the world through the hashtag but ironically thanks to Chris Messina, an American blogger...

The official name for the exclamation mark or bash character is a pling. I learnt that from a school friend many, many years ago and very few people seem to ever use the term besides me and (presumably) said friend...

"The official name for the exclamation mark or bash character is a pling." [my emphasis]

It seems that, unless I set up an account, I'm missing some of the information presented; nonetheless, this does look more like a definition of pling than a definition of exclamation mark.

From "The Unicode Standard, Version 15.0" list of character names: (link to PDF) "C0 Controls and Basic Latin (Range: 0000–007F)".

U+0021 ! EXCLAMATION MARK

Informative alias list:
    = factorial
    = bang
Cross-reference list (items start with '→'): 9 entries.

U+0023 # NUMBER SIGN

Informative alias list:
    = pound sign (weight)
    = hashtag, hash
    = crosshatch, octothorpe
Informative note list (items start with '•'): 1 entry re musical sharp.
Cross-reference list (items start with '→'): 5 entries including some characters mentioned elsewhere in this thread (e.g. ℔ and ♯).

— Ken

Don't forget octothorpe!