ampersand
noun

- the sign (&) used for ‘and’

-  a character typically & standing for the word and

The Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

The first known example of the word "ampersand" in English is from the late 18th century, but the word’s origin lies in a linguistic tradition that dates to several centuries earlier.

Starting in the late Middle Ages, single letters that also functioned as words; for example “I” and “A” were referred to as letters with the aid of the phrase "per se", to clarify that it was the letter being referred to, and not the word. The letter I, for example, would be referred to with the phrase "I per se, I", which means in Latin “I by itself (is the word) I”. When the quasi-letter & was referred to, it was called “& per se, and”, meaning “& by itself (is the word) and”. That read as “and per se and”.

“And per se, and” eventually evolved into the word “ampersand”, the word we know and love today & the rest is history.

(adapted from Merriam-Webster)

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PUNCTUATION PUZZLE

How many of the following punctuation marks can you name? (Scroll down for answers)

.
,
;
:
…
-
_  this is not a dash or a hyphen :-)

“ ”
‘ ’
‘
@
&
#
*
/
\
( )
[ ]
¶
?
!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
ANSWERS:

.  full stop (UK), period (US)
,  comma
;  semi-colon
:  colon
…  ellipsis
-  dash, hyphen
_  underscore

“ ”  quotation marks
‘ ’  single quotation marks
‘  apostrophe
@  “at” sign
&  ampersand
#  hash, hashtag
*  asterisk
/  stroke (UK), slash (US)
\  back stroke (UK), back slash (US)
( ) (round) brackets (UK), parentheses (US)
[ ]  square brackets
¶  paragraph sign, pilkrow
?  question mark
!  exclamation mark

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THE PERILS OF PUNCTUATION

In 1905 in St. Petersburg, striking Bolshevik printers demanded to be paid the same rate for punctuation marks as for letters. The so-called “Comma Strike” spread popular boycott throughout Russia and thereby directly precipitated the first Russian Revolution.

—
SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“I always have to think hard about whether it's better to use an AMPERSAND or an ‘and’ when writing in English.”

—
HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40