Re: When to Use Pound Signs

[Andrew Bernard]

Other sources suggest that Mr Kerr’s story is fabricated or unreliable, and etymologists regard such stories with caution.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-oct1.htm

Amusingly, myself, apart from enjoying the word octothorpe, I also call it ‘sharp’ (incorrectly), which brings us back to music!

Andrew

On 6/01/2016, 17:39, "Nathan Ho" <address@hidden on behalf of address@hidden> wrote:

Fun fact -- the term "octothorpe" was completely fabricated and doesn't 

have an etymology. It started out as an in-joke at Bell Labs: 

http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/Octatherp.pdf