From: Mike Campbell <michael_s_campbell@...>
Date: 2002-10-11T12:51:27+09:00
Subject: OT: was RE: Too Many Underscores?

> I agree, "pound" to me always means that character I can't type, and I ain'
> even Bri'ish, inni'?  Can anyone explain why some people call "#" "pound"?  To
> me it's "number" or "hash".
>
> Gavni


Some info...

http://www.strowger.net/tel_tech_octothorpe.html

http://www.quinion.com/words/weirdwords/ww-oct1.htm

I have looked on a number of occasions, and can't find out where the "#" ->
"pound" (i.e. unit of weight) mapping came from; but I'm guessing it was used in
days olde to notate that a number was to be taken for "pounds"; perhaps on
manifests, bills of lading and the like.  That's pure conjecture on my part,
however.  The pound meaning of it seems to be an American invention.

<google...>

Ah, maybe I was right!

http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?hash+character

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/26042.html