Word of the Day

: September 7, 2015

ampersand

noun am-pər-sand

What It Means

: a character & that is used for the word and

ampersand in Context

The company coming out of this merger will have a name that combines elements of each of the original companies' names with an ampersand.

"The techies attempt to log in as me. They fail.… They are flummoxed.… Did I log in too many times? Did the ampersand in my password (NTTAisGREAT&) throw off the system?" -Dave Lieber, The Dallas Morning News, 25 July 2015

Did You Know?

Despite appearances, the history of ampersand owes nothing to amp or sand. The familiar character & derives from a symbol that was used in place of the Latin word et, which also means "and." In the late Middle Ages, single letters used as words-words like I-were, when spelled, incorporated into a phrase that clarified that they were in fact individual words. For I the phrase was I per se, I, which in Latin means "I by itself (is the word) I." In early lists of the alphabet, Z was followed by the symbol &, which was rendered & per se, and, meaning "& by itself (is the word) and." Over the years, that phrase (which when spoken aloud was pronounced "and per se and") was shortened by English speakers to ampersand.