1. The ampersand symbol began back in the first century when Roman scribes wrote in cursive. These scribes wrote the letters e and t together forming the Latin word et, which means “and.”
2. Over time, these letters written together came to represent the word and, which was carried over into the English language.
3. In the early 1800s, the alphabet song included & as the twenty-seventh letter. To avoid the confusion of ending the alphabet saying “X, Y, Z, and,” the students were told to say “X, Y, Z and per se and.” (The Latin phrase per se means “in itself.”) Over time, per se and was corrupted and became the word ampersand. (When a new word is formed from mistakenly pronouncing another, it is called a mondegreen).
4. The invention of the ampersand is usually credited to Marcus Tullius Tiro, the slave and secretary to the Roman politician Cicero. He invented a shorthand writing system in 63 B.C. called Tironian Notes, which included the ampersand.
5. The ampersand appears in all languages derived from Latin, including German, French, and Spanish.
6. The French translation for ampersand (&) is “esperluette.”
7. We don’t know exactly when this symbol was first written down, but an early example has been found as graffiti on a wall in Pompeii, preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.
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Not so much a ‘mondegreen’ as a matter of ‘ease of speech: /andper/ > /anper/ > /amper/; elision and adapting the alveolar /n/ to the bilabial plosive /p/; the resulting /m/ being a ‘bird of a feather’.
The ‘e’ of ‘se’ is again easily elided, most likely because of the stressed ‘and’.
Thanks for that info, Will!
So why exactly is the ampersand frowned upon in writing anyway?😕
The use of most symbols is frowned upon in most formal writing, in favor of the actual word.
This is an interesting bit of history. Thanks!
You’re welcome, Robin!
Most interesting! Thanks for doing the research
With all the additions and changes to the English language in my lifetime, it’s a wonder that the ampersand has hung on and still usable for almost 2000 years!
More proof that things don’t really change as much in language as we think they do!
Very interesting! Thank you for this.
You’re welcome!