Ampersand

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ampersand \Am"per*sand\, n. [A corruption of and, per se and, i.
     e., & by itself makes and.]
     A word used to describe the character ?, ?, or &.
     --Halliwell.
     [1913 Webster]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ampersand
       n : a punctuation mark (&) used to represent conjunction (and)

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  ampersand
       
           "&" {ASCII} character 38.
       
          Common names: {ITU-T}, {INTERCAL}: ampersand; amper; and.
          Rare: address (from {C}); reference (from C++); bitand;
          background (from {sh}); pretzel; amp.
       
          A common symbol for "and", used as the "address of" operator
          in {C}, the "reference" operator in {C++} and a {bitwise}
          {AND} operator in several programming languages.
       
          {UNIX} {shells} use the character to indicate that a task
          should be run in the {background}.
       
          The ampersand is a ligature (combination) of the cursive
          letters "e" and "t", invented in 63 BC by Marcus Tirus [Tiro?]
          as shorthand for the Latin word for "and", "et".
       
          The word ampersand is a conflation (combination) of "and, per
          se and".  Per se means "by itself", and so the phrase
          translates to "&, standing by itself, means 'and'".  This was
          at the end of the alphabet as it was recited by children in
          old English schools.  The words ran together and were
          associated with "&".  The "ampersand" spelling dates from
          1837.
       
          {Take our word for it
          (http://www.takeourword.com/Issue010.html)}.
       
          (2000-10-28)