octothorpe

English - English

Definition of octothorpe in English English dictionary

]], used mainly in telephony and computing

Strings are enclosed in double quotation marks, numbers are not enclosed in anything, and dates and Boolean values are enclosed between octothorpe (#) characters.

A name for the hash or square symbol [[Appendix: Unsupported titles/Number sign|

the symbol on telephone pads or as a number symbol

{i} pound sign, number sign, the symbol #

A name for the hash or square symbol (#), used mainly in telephony and computing

Synonyms

hash, octothorn, pound sign, number sign

Etymology

() Origin disputed. Reportedly a jocular coinage by Bell Labs supervisor Don Macpherson in the early 1960s, from octo- (“eight”), with reference to its eight points, + -thorpe (after 1912 Olympic medalist Jim Thorpe, in whom Macpherson was interested). However, Doug Kerr attributes octatherp to a practical joke by engineers John C. Schaak, Herbert T. Uthlaut, and Lauren Asplund upon himself and Howard Eby. The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories (1991) supports octotherp as the original spelling, and telephone engineers as the source.