WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Grammar Minute: History of the & (Ampersand)

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Where did this weird little squiggle come from? Learn more on today's episode of Grammar Minute!

Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we're saving the English language 60 seconds at a time. I'm Lauren Smith, and I looked at my keyboard and saw some weird little marks, and one of the weirdest little marks, in my opinion, is the ampersand. What is that little squiggle? Actually, the ampersand has very little to do with the English word and, and everything to do with the Latin word et. The squiggle, as I've described it, is supposed to be a combination of the letters E and T. At one point, this symbol was actually the 27th letter in the English alphabet,

probably because the word and is used so often that it just made sense to save space, especially in printed materials where every letter had to be typed set by hand. The word ampersand is also a shortened form of and per se and, which is what British children called this symbol when reciting the alphabet. That's your Grammar Minute. Visit thegrammerminut.com for more tips and tricks.