The ampersand was once the 27th letter after ‘Z’ in the Latin alphabet. The shape of the character (&) predates the word ‘ampersand’ by more than 1,500 years. In the first century, Roman scribes wrote in cursive, so when they wrote the Latin word et which means ‘and’ they linked the e and t. In the early 1800s, school children reciting their ABCs concluded the alphabet with the ‘&’. It was recited as “and per se and”, meaning ‘and by itself and’. Over time ‘and per se and’ morphed together into the word ‘ampersand’.
There are blogs that focus on ampersands, there are t-shirts, there are colouring books about ampersands, ampersand-a-day Tumblr blogs, apparently a surprising number of people out there have ampersand tattoos, sculptural decorations for the home, framed prints and a multitude of Pinterest pages besotted by it. Perhaps the most dedicated undertaking in praise of the humble letter form was the contribution by 400 different designers to create an entire font made up of nothing but ampersands. All of this activity and commerce, for one humble character, that sits discretely above the number 7 on your keyboard.
Picture Credit : Google
