Per Se
Friday 19 December 2014 • 2:41 AM
Among linguists this is probably common knowledge, but the history of the ampersand (&) is one of the coolest etymologies I’ve heard.
First the symbol. The Latin word for “and” is et. Long ago, when scribes would make copies of documents, the cursive form of the letters “e t” morphed into &. Since and was/is such a common word, & was a form of shorthand.
But what about the word ampersand?
At one point, & was regarded as the 27th letter of the alphabet. But ending the alphabet saying “X, Y, Z, and” sounds odd. Instead, children were taught to say “X, Y, Z, and per se and”
“and per se and” became ampersand.
Tell your friends.