The ‘#’ symbol is so ubiquitous most of us probably don’t think much about how we choose to pronounce it. But it is a choice. For most of my life I’ve either called it ‘the number sign’ or ‘the pound sign’. But once Twitter culture took over the collective consciousness, many have found themselves slipping into saying ‘hashtag’. Some people say ‘crosshatch’. Some people say ‘crunch’. ‘Waffle’ is a fun one. But my favorite pronunciation by far is ‘octothorpe’.
Birth of the ‘Hashtag’
On the quiet afternoon of August 23rd, 2007, open-source advocate Chris Messina sent the very first tweet incorporating a hashtag:
how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]? 1
Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, notes that Messina initially pitched the idea to them at their offices, but the Twitter crew was, frankly, too busy to care much 2. When it caught on later that year, Twitter eventually incorporated it into their API.
You’ll notice that, even in its creation, Messina still referred to the symbol as ‘pound’. And though many people associate the hashtag with Twitter, Messina, true to his open-source roots, insists that it is an independent invention usable on any platform.
Coining ‘Hashtag’
The word ‘hashtag’ wasn’t coined until a couple of days later when ecologist and futurist Stowe Boyd sent this tweet:
I support the hash tag convention: http://tinyurl.com/2qttlb #hashtag #factoryjoe #twitter 3
It’s important to point out that at this point the symbol itself is not a hashtag. Hash is one of the many names by which people refer to the symbol. And tag refers to the method of tagging or grouping posts with a title. So for example, ‘#’ is the hash. ‘barcamp’ is the tag. And ‘#barcamp’ is the hashtag used to group tweets with that title. Why the ‘#’ symbol? Well, in Chris Messina’s own words, “because of IRC convention and it was easy to type on T-9 phones in 2007!” 4.
You may be wondering, why is it called a hashtag and not a poundtag? Well, that’s actually a great question. While ‘pound’ is a common American pronunciation, ‘hash’ is much more popular in Britain. Still, the coiner, Stowe Boyd, appears to be American, born and raised. So you’ll have to ask him!
The Mid-Century ‘Octothorpe’
Long before the hashtag though, there was another word the tech industry used for the ‘#’ symbol. Somewhere around the late 1960s, the telecommunications industry began saying ‘octothorpe’ as a way to pronounce ‘#’.
On November 18th, 1963, rotary phones had reached their autumn years when Bell Systems introduced the public to the Touch-Tone phone. And on this new button-operated telephone, two new symbols joined the 0 through 9 users had grown accustom to: ‘*’ and ‘#’. the problem was, people needed a word to call these symbols. In the telecom community, ‘star’ seems to be more popular than ‘asterisk’ which has been common in text for centuries. But ‘asterisk’ comes from the Greek asteriskos meaning ‘little star’, so it’s not far off.
But then what about ‘#’? It’s a less common symbol that has been used in different ways throughout time. ‘Pound’ is a common pronunciation in America, because the symbol was often used as a replacement for ‘lb’ (from the Latin ‘libra pondo’). But this was a different use of the symbol. Well, in came ‘Octothorpe’.
Why? Good question. Obviously octo- because it has eight points, but why -thorpe?
There Once Was a Man Named Thorpe
A fun myth gets thrown about when people try to figure out this word. There’s a story about a great man named Thorpe who had eight children. And another about a tribute to Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe. But these stories are farfetched. According to The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories:
the earliest form of the word seems to have been octotherp … How octotherp was coined is still a mystery, though we are told by a correspondent from the engineering community that it was coined as a lark, octo- for ‘eight’… and -therp when somebody burped. Such a tall-sounding tale is not entirely out of the question, given the arbitrariness of some modern scientific coinages. 5
Yeah. The closest we can get to an etymology is…a burp. Perhaps this is why -therp quickly evolved into the more familiar -thorpe. Admittedly, the word remained pretty niche for a couple decades and “was not entered in the Addenda Section of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary until 1986.” 6 Uses of the word octothorpe can be found in text as early as 1973:
A select group of Sears customers were given a “how to” manual on ordering goods by Touch-Tone. The octothorpe (#) and asterisk (*) buttons are used to separate information and to indicate end of transmission. This is the first system in Canada in which the general public has direct access to a computer from their homes. 7
A # by Any Other Name
But today, octothorpe has all but completely fallen out of use. While most people have reverted back to ‘pound’ or ‘hash’, many other names do exist. Back in the 80s, The New York Times featured a list of readers’ favorite names for the symbol.
Among other names proposed were Hatch, Box, Ditto, Grid, Chiffer, Corral, Pound, Quadrux, Track, Dunphy, Hex, Double Cross, Omni and Sidfrigand. 8
The battle over pronouncing symbols isn’t limited to ‘#’ though. For instance, how do you say ‘!’? And what do you call ‘&’? Different cultures have different words, but the Internet (that great crash site of cultures) is leading to a standardized nomenclature. Certainly efficiency of language is great, but not if we lose great words like my new favorite, octothorpe!
- @chrismessina | Status: 223115412 | Twitter | 23 Aug 2007
- Stone, Biz | “The hashtag at 10 years young” | Twitter | 23 Aug 2017
- @stoweboyd | Status: 226570552 | Twitter | 25 Aug 2007
- @chrismessina | Status: 386127369603256320 | Twitter | 4 Oct 2013
- “Octothorp” | The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories | 1991
- ibid
- Morrison, HRW | “‘Tomorrow’ Is Here” | Computers and Automation | Dec 1973
- King, Wayne & Weaver Jr, Warren | “Name that Button” | “Briefing” | New York Times | 6 Oct 1986