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Thread: Pounds!

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    Question Pounds!

    Why, oh why, do Americans call this -> # <- a 'pound sign'? It is a HASH! This -> £ <- is a pound sign. The only other thing used to signify a pound is "lb.", if you are using imperial measures of weight!

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    Senior Member Tumble's Avatar
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    it was probably some geek in the early seventies using a UK layout k/b in the US of A, and hit shift 3 and got a # out, looked at the k/b and thought "hmmm.... a pound sign...."


    Work with me here, I'm imagining some kind of Denzil Dexter character, horn-rim glasses, big beard, long hair and white coat.. you get the picture...

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    Originally posted by Tumble
    it was probably some geek in the early seventies using a UK layout k/b in the US of A, and hit shift 3 and got a # out, looked at the k/b and thought "hmmm.... a pound sign...."


    Work with me here, I'm imagining some kind of Denzil Dexter character, horn-rim glasses, big beard, long hair and white coat.. you get the picture...
    I can see where you're heading!
    But WTF!

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    Americans...
    need I say more?
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    In the USA, '#' is usually called a "pound sign" because it is sometimes used in groceries as an abbreviation for one pound dry weight, as in "Bananas 3# $1" (bananas three pounds for one dollar). This would be rather confusing in other parts of the world, as the phrase "pound sign" generally refers to the UK pound sterling sign. I understand that the official name of
    the '#' is "octothorp". The octo part is because there are eight little bristles sticking out from the central rectangle.

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    ...hmmm...cheers for that. i think
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    Originally posted by Zathras
    In the USA, '#' is usually called a "pound sign" because it is sometimes used in groceries as an abbreviation for one pound dry weight, as in "Bananas 3# $1" (bananas three pounds for one dollar). This would be rather confusing in other parts of the world, as the phrase "pound sign" generally refers to the UK pound sterling sign. I understand that the official name of
    the '#' is "octothorp". The octo part is because there are eight little bristles sticking out from the central rectangle.

    They don't use the 'lb' (from libre) like the rest of the world for their weight measurements?

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    dpm
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    Originally posted by Tumble
    it was probably some geek in the early seventies using a UK layout k/b in the US of A, and hit shift 3 and got a # out, looked at the k/b and thought "hmmm.... a pound sign...."


    Work with me here, I'm imagining some kind of Denzil Dexter character, horn-rim glasses, big beard, long hair and white coat.. you get the picture...
    "this week, dave and i.....

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    if you write lb in stylised italics/flowing script it comes out looking like a #, that's how it came about initially apparently.

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    Originally posted by Zathras
    if you write lb in stylised italics/flowing script it comes out looking like a #, that's how it came about initially apparently.

    It does, but only VERY slightly! I think it's a bit of a kop-out tbh!

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    Well BR, that's how it came about, believe it or not, kop-out or whatever, it's the truth. As for the sig, well I had a nice one with pretty girlies etc but they're just ten-a-penny and don't stand out at all.

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    And here I thought # was called "hash"

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    My laptop doesn't have a £ symbol so I end up using the & sign as it looks closest. Still sucks though.

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