# - why do Americans call it a POUND sign

[Pinotage]

# - why do Americans call # a POUND sign when they use it as an abbreviation for NUMBER - eg '# 1 best seller' (its real name is an octothorpe)

[Quizmonster]

Re your latest post here, Pinotage, you're probably right...nobody knows, but we might make an educated guess. The # seems to have started off as a suffix symbol for pounds (weight) so it would always have been in close association with a number..."carrots 16#" meaning 16 pounds of carrots, for example.

I can quite easily imagine an American trader shipping six crates (rather than carrots!) using the same sign to indicate a given crate's position in a sequence. "#3" = Crate No 3. This would make it easy for both the person taking delivery and himself to check the load was complete.

In other words, a common trading symbol everyone was familiar with was simply adapted to perform a different - but really quite similar - function. This is just how language/communication actually works. Things change...as a young man - a long time ago! - I would have been quite happy to tell friends that I had attended a 'gay' party the evening before. (It meant bright, cheerful etc then.) I'd think twice about that now!

Anyway, there's a stab at actually answering your question in toto.

[Quizmonster]

Pinotage, re your latest post here, you're probably right and nobody does know. However, it is possible to make an educated guess as to how the suffixed # meaning 'pounds weight' came, over time, to mean 'number'. The # was always in close association with a number, anyway, as in "carrots 16#", so I can easily envisage a businessman shipping 16 crates - rather than carrots! - marking them '#1' to '#16' as an easy checking device for both himself and the person taking delivery.

In other words, a symbol that was well known to traders was simply adapted to another use. This is, after all, exactly what happens to language/communication all the time. As a young man - a long time ago! - I would have been perfectly happy to tell my friends that I had attended a 'gay' party the evening before. (It meant bright, cheerful etc then.) I'd think twice about saying any such thing nowadays! Things change and that's all there is to it.

[Pickle]

This page is good, it talks about the # sign in detail. I think consensus is that Americans are wrong in calling it a pound sign.

[Pickle]

Oops. the link would help http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign

[Ouisch]

Actually, before the proliferation of the touchtone telephone, the # sign was generally referred to as a "number sign." It was used as a shorthand symbol for "pounds" when writing down a weight, but as a rule it was recognized as the number sign.

[Linda F]

Hey, you guys, I'm across the pond here in Canada, and in the 50+ years of my existence we in this country have used this # symbol to represent both a shorthand for pound weight (as in "she weighs 125#", for instance on medical charts) and for number (as in "School District #8").  It's where it is placed (before or after the numerals) that signifiies to the user how it read it.  Before the existence of telephone keypads, it was more commonly known as the number sign, but it was nonetheless already in common use as a pound sign.