From Keith Franklin and P.F. Perry
I am afraid that James Follett is incorrect then he states that, “The entire English-speaking world refers to the # symbol as a hash” (Letters, 3 February, p 57). Having just returned from two years spent working in Massachusetts I can inform him that in the States # is referred to as “the pound sign” and is used as an abbreviation for lbs (pounds weight). It is also used as an abbreviation for number, equivalent to no. (#3 = no.3).
A “hash sign”, I assume, would mean a signal to a suitable vendor that you wished to pursue an interest in exotic herbs …
Is it really true that “the entire English-speaking world refers to the # symbol as a hash”? I was puzzled by automated US-based fax inquiry systems urging me to “now press the pound key”. Of course they meant the #, which I believe is correctly called the octothorn. I suppose the “hash” designation is a corruption of “hatching” which it resembles. Confusion like this can only occur in the “communication” industries. What is the chance of convincing people to call the “/” in Internet addresses by one of its proper names, the virgule or solidus?
