Pilcrow, Dagger, and Octothorp, Oh My!
So, I don’t know what kind of nerd you are, but my brand of nerdiness dovetails neatly with this video about the origins of some of the most common symbols on your keyboard: #, @, &, §, *, ¶, †, and ‡, as well as ☞.
The “and” symbol or ampersand does not look like a word, but it is one. In fact, it is a full one. It is the Latin word for “and”: “et”. The Romans themselves used this. How do we know? Because we have this: the earliest known example of it, graffitied onto a wall in the doomed Roman city of Pompeii.
Comments 2
I wish people who create these videos would also include a summary. The topic is somewhat interesting to me but 20 minutes to get information about 8 symbols is just not worth it.
I can't really think of a better example of making thing shittier* than requiring people to spend 20 minutes watching a video to get information that could probably be conveyed in less than a page.
*Not using word "enshittification" here because that word itself is a example of making things shittier.
I would not have posted this video if it was shitty. I also watch movies instead of just reading their plot summaries on Wikipedia. (I'm being a little salty about this, but come on. Not everything is about the most efficient ingestion of information.)
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