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#Octothorpe - A Symbolistic Journey

2014-10-24 · explainer · Hank · 3:41 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities · mode: Explainer · tags: self promotion, community lore

Hank traces the # symbol from medieval bookkeepers' 'lb' through Teletype codes and Bell Labs touch-tone phones to the hashtag, and argues its best name is the engineers' joke word 'octothorpe'.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; the world is fascinating: drill down into anything and find convoluted tales of hilarity and intrigue

  • ★ Hank says the world is fascinating: drill down far enough into almost anything and you find convoluted tales of hilarity and intrigue. (playful) — 00:00:01

00:00:10 — The symbol's many names; US and UK 'pound sign' are different characters; both come from libra pondo; bookkeepers' crossed 'lb' becomes #

  • ★★ The # has different names in different countries: in America shifted-three is the 'pound sign', in the UK shifted-three is also the 'pound sign' but a different character. — 00:00:10 · United States, United Kingdom
  • ★★ Both 'pound signs' come from the Latin phrase for weight, libra pondo, which is also why pound is abbreviated lb (which Hank calls super dumb). — 00:00:23
  • ★★★ In the middle of the last millennium bookkeepers scribbled 'lb' so fast it looked like '16', so they crossed its top; the frantic scribble came to look like #. — 00:00:32

00:00:50 — Teletype codes: the US took the obsolete pound sign instead of £; it became a catch-all symbol and the 'number sign', a name Hank refuses

  • ★★★ The symbol was nearly out of use until the end of the 19th century, when the Teletype Corporation was inventing binary codes; the US gave the UK pound-sign code 10111 to the obsolete # instead of £. — 00:00:50 · United Kingdom, United States
  • ★★ Because it meant little, # became a catch-all non-confusing symbol, which is probably how it became known as the 'number sign'. (hedged) — 00:01:16
  • ★★ Hank refuses to accept the name 'number sign': marking a number as a number is extremely non-useful. (playful) — 00:01:27

00:01:33 — Bell Labs' touch-tone phones need two non-number ASCII buttons: the asterisk and #; it spreads to phones and the American keyboard

  • ★★★ Developing touch-tone phones in the 1960s, Bell Labs wanted two extra non-number buttons to control machines; a star and a diamond were rejected because they were not in ASCII. — 00:01:33
  • ★★★ Bell Labs chose the asterisk and the little-used # because they were not confusing; via the phones # became a standard symbol and went onto the American keyboard in place of £. — 00:01:54 · United States

00:02:21 — Bell Labs manuals call it an 'octothorpe' as a joke that catches on among engineers; hashtag and hash sign; Hank chooses octothorpe

  • ★★★ Bell Labs manuals sometimes footnoted the sign as 'also sometimes known as an octothorpe'; the joke caught on among engineers for a couple of decades. — 00:02:21 · octothorpe

    “also sometimes known as an octothorpe”

  • ★★ In Hank's opinion 'octothorpe' is a better word for the symbol than any other option. (hedged) — 00:02:44 · octothorpe

  • ★★ The social-media hashtag is another use enabled by the symbol's prevalence; most of the world says 'hash sign', while America still says the confusing 'pound sign'. — 00:02:51 · United States
  • ★★★ Hank prefers language defined by cheeky 1960s nerds to the whims of social media, so for him the symbol will always be the octothorpe. (playful) — 00:03:05 · octothorpe

00:03:13 — Sign-off

00:03:21 — New DFTBA.com store launched after a year of work; new designs including an octothorpe shirt pre-order

  • ★★★ After about a year of work, a new DFTBA.com merch store has launched: prettier, more functional, no PayPal needed, posters and shirts in one order. — 00:03:21 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★ A few new designs have launched, one of which Hank had to blur, plus a pre-order shirt for octothorpe lovers. — 00:03:32 · DFTBA Records

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Hank adds that 'octothorpe' is one of the few words in the language with no linguistic roots: it was entirely made up. — video description · octothorpe

Humor (significant)

  • After explaining that pound is abbreviated lb from libra pondo, Hank editorialises. — 00:00:27

    “Despite the fact that that is super dumb.”

  • Hank explains # is called the number sign because you put it before a number to show it's a number. — 00:01:27

    “I know it's a number because it's a number!”

  • After the long Bell Labs history, Hank checks his own phone keypad. — 00:02:03

    “remarkably enough if I go to the keypad, it's still on there!”

  • Hank sides with the cheeky 1960s nerds over the whims of social media, echoing a famous film line. — 00:03:05

    “for us, we'll always have octothorpe!”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Bell Labs · DFTBA Records · number sign · octothorpe

Also: Works: #Octothorpe shirt

Organizations: PayPal · Teletype Corporation

Concepts: ASCII · asterisk · hashtag · pound (mass) · pound sign

Places: United Kingdom · United States

Products: Touch-Tone

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