Search results
Ampersand is a character typically & standing for the word and. It derives from a symbol that was used in place of the Latin word et, which also means "and". Learn more about its history, usage, and examples from various sources.
Learn about the history and evolution of the ampersand (&), a ligature of the Latin word et meaning "and". Discover how the ampersand is used in brands, music, literature, and programming.
- Etymology
- History
- Similar Characters
- Writing The Ampersand
- Usage
- Computing
- See Also
- External Links
Traditionally in English, when spelling aloud, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A", "I", and "O") was referred to by the Latin expression per se ('by itself'), as in "per se A" or "A per se A". The character &, when used by itself as opposed to more extended forms such as &c., was similarly referred to as "and per se and".Th...
The ampersand can be traced back to the 1st century AD and the old Roman cursive, in which the letters E and T occasionally were written together to form a ligature (Evolution of the ampersand – figure 1). In the later and more flowing New Roman Cursive, ligatures of all kinds were extremely common; figures 2 and 3 from the middle of 4th century ar...
In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the character ⁊ (U+204A ⁊ TIRONIAN SIGN ET) is used in place of the ampersand. This character is a survival of Tironian notes, a medieval shorthand system. This character is known as the Tironian Et in English, the agus in Irish, and the agusanin Scottish Gaelic. The logical conjunction symbol, ∧, is often pronounced "...
In everyday handwriting, the ampersand is sometimes simplified in design as a large lowercase epsilon Ɛ or a reversed numeral 3, superimposed by a vertical line.The ampersand is also sometimes shown as an epsilon with a vertical line above and below it or a dot above and below it. The plus sign + (itself based on an et-ligature) is often informally...
Ampersands are commonly seen in business names formed from a partnership of two or more people, such as Johnson & Johnson, Dolce & Gabbana, Marks & Spencer, and Tiffany & Co., as well as some abbreviations containing the word and, such as AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph), A&P (supermarkets), P&O (originally "Peninsular and Oriental", shippin...
Encoding and display
The character in Unicode is U+0026 & AMPERSAND (&, &); this is inherited from the same value in ASCII. Apart from this, Unicode also has the following variants: 1. U+FE60 ﹠ SMALL AMPERSAND(fullwidth CJK ideograph for East Asian typography) 2. U+FF06 ＆ FULLWIDTH AMPERSAND (in block Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms) 3. U+214B ⅋ TURNED AMPERSAND (in block Letterlike Symbols) 4. U+1F670 🙰 SCRIPT LIGATURE ET ORNAMENT 5. U+1F671 🙱 HEAVY SCRIPT LIGATURE ET ORNAMENT 6. U+1F672 🙲 LIGATURE OPEN...
Programming languages
In the 20th century, following the development of formal logic, the ampersand became a commonly used logical notation for the binary operator or sentential connective AND. This usage was adopted in computing. Many languages with syntax derived from C, including C++, Perl,and more differentiate between: 1. & for bitwise AND (4 & 2) is zero, (4 & 5)is 4. 2. && for short-circuit logical AND (4 && 2)is true. In C, C++, and Go, a prefix & is a unary operator denoting the address in memory of the a...
Text markup
In SGML, XML, and HTML, the ampersand is used to introduce an SGML entity, such as (for non-breaking space) or α (for the Greek letter α). The HTML and XML encoding for the ampersand character is the entity &. This can create a problem known as delimiter collision when converting text into one of these markup languages. For instance, when putting URLs or other material containing ampersands into XML format files such as RSS files the & must be replaced with & or they are...
"The History of 'Ampersand'". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 27 July 2022."Ask the Editor: Ampersand", video at Merriam-Webster.com (2:01). Retrieved 2013-10-18 Archived 19 October 2013 at the Wayback MachineFont of 52 ampersands, designed by Frederic Goudy- U+0026
- Latin script
Learn how the symbol &, also known as the ampersand, was created in the 19th century from a ligature of e and t, the Latin word for "and". Find out how the word ampersand evolved from a medieval linguistic tradition and how it appeared in ancient graffiti and documents.
The ampersand (the “&” symbol) is an unusual feature of the English language. It can be used in three ways: as part of an official name, as part of a descriptive clause, or as a shorthand for "and". Learn the grammar rules and examples of how to use an ampersand in formal and informal writing.
Mar 1, 2023 · The ampersand (&) is an icon that means and. It’s often used in… Learn the history and definition of the ampersand, including how to use it correctly, with examples of sentences containing ampersands.
Learn how to use the ampersand (&), a symbol that replaces the word "and", in different contexts and situations. Find out the origin, history, and punctuation of this glyph and see examples of its usage in sentences.
