What a Character: Let's Talk Ampersands

Alexandra Duncan

The ampersand is one of my favorite characters. I use it everywhere! As someone who writes all of their notes in cursive and wants to get as much information as fast as I can on a page, it definitely comes in handy. But what is the ampersand? The ampersand is a character that was created in the time of the ancient Romans when they would write "E" and "T" together and it began to look like the character you see to the left. Overtime, the letters have formed the meaning "and," but they weren't always called "ampersand." The first known ampersand of its kind was actually found in preserved graffiti in Pompeii!

In the 1800s, the ampersand was actually a part of the English alphabet. After the letter Z, children would say “and per se and," with "per se" meaning by itself." Overtime, the words melded and slurred together to create "ampersand." Fun Fact: A word that comes from a mistakenly pronounced word is called a mondegreen.

An ampersand can lighten up a conservative written piece, can professionalize a logo or business name and can represent a closer relationship over "and."

For more information on ampersands check out these helpful sites:

https://medium.com/black-lion-banner/the-history-of-the-ampersand-c81839171940

https://www.fastcompany.com/3055622/why-designers-love-the-ampersand

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/origin-of-ampersand/

Alexandra is a Technical and Professional Writing major with a focus in multimedia.