Tomorrow is Ampersand Day, and so we’ve curated a few cool facts and fun things to do around this important symbol in literature that is referred to as the 27th letter of the alphabet
The ampersand and its italic variant. Pics Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons
The symbol ‘&’, known as the ampersand, was once considered a letter in the English alphabet before it was removed. Originating in Pompeii in the first century CE, it came from the Latin ‘et’ meaning ‘and’. When the letters ‘e’ and ‘t’ were combined together in writing, they looked like ‘&’. Today, the ampersand is widely used in poems, names of organisations, even in pop culture when referring to famous pairs like Batman & Robin, Tom & Jerry and Frodo & Sam.
To usher the day here are five cool facts about the symbol:
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EE Cummings
1 The origin story: In the 1800s in Britain, the English alphabet ended with the letters X, Y, Z and &. This made the ampersand the 27th letter. To distinguish it from the conjunction ‘and’, which spoken aloud would make the alphabet end abruptly, they wrote “per se” before the symbol. This implied “by itself &”. It would read “X, Y, Z, and per se &”. While reciting, children’s tongues would often slip into pronouncing “and per se &” as ampersand. This is how the name came to be.
Cover of EE Cummings’s poetry book comprising 25 poems; (right) The English alphabet including the ampersand
2 Experiments in poetry: Several poets have used the ampersand as stylistic choices within their poems. The best-known story is of the modernist poet EE Cummings. Cummings was a major proponent of experimentation in poetry, ignoring the conventions of grammar. His first collection of poems, Tulips and Chimneys, was originally titled Tulips & Chimneys. However, his publisher didn’t want to risk its censorship and, therefore, refused to use the ampersand. The symbol was not commonly accepted at the time in formal practices of writing. Later, Cummings self-published the 25 poems that were removed from the first collection and titled the book, &.
Available: Leading bookstores & e-stores
3 Encoding with &: In HTML, the ampersand is used when the coder wishes to denote a known entity. For instance, if one is to display a double quotation mark, the entity that one types for it is: " That is, ampersand followed by the abbreviated name of the entity and closed with a semicolon. Similarly, if one were to display the symbol of copyright, one would enter the text: ©
4 Crediting in America: In cinema, it’s become a common practice to use the ampersand to show a collaboration between two screenwriters as a team. When the people work separately on the same film, i.e. in their individual capacity than together, the word “and” is used in the end credits, instead of
the ampersand.
5 Raising relief funds: The year 2010 saw a significant use of the symbol in design. When the earthquake hit Haiti, the Society of Typographic Aficionados launched the Font Aid IV project, which brought design communities together to raise relief funds for the victims of the disaster. Around 400 designers contributed designs of ampersands, which collectively became the collaborative font of the project. The font came to be called the Coming Together font, and the proceeds from those who bought the typeface went to the victims.
Log on to typesociety.org/fontaid/iv/
Five ways to celebrate the day
1. Bake an ampersand-shaped cake and share these facts with your friends or family during tea-time.
2. Artists must try five different ways of typography of the ampersand.
3. Challenge yourself to a one-minute writing activity where you use the ampersand in creative ways.
4. Create a fun quiz for your friends with some strange facts about the English alphabet.
5. Watch a movie with the ampersand in the title.
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