On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 13:34:48 -0000, "Paul Sengupta"
wrote in Message-Id:
:

In the UK #=hash.


http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_bo...ages/1587.html

: : : : Here's something interesting. But, why do we now call it
the "pound" sign.
: : : :
: : : : OCTOTHORP
: : : : (AHK-tuh-thorp)
: : : : (n.) The "pound" sign, "number sign," or "tictactoe sign"

: : : : Also spelled "octothorpe," this name for the "#" symbol
dates from the 1960s. The story goes that it was coined by
employee at Bell Labs after the telephone company introduced the #
key on then-new
: : : : touch-tone phone systems. When instructing their first new
client in the use of the new system, employee Don Macpherson
supposedly dubbed that particular key the "octothorp." He chose
"octo-" because of the
: : : : symbol's eight points, and added "thorpe" because at the
time he belonged to a group trying to get the Olympic medals of
the athlete Jim Thorpe returned from Sweden