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From: tag@tty3b.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: What is the # called? - (nf)
Message-ID: <128@tty3b.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Jun-83 11:40:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: tty3b.128
Posted: Thu Jun 16 11:40:37 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jun-83 15:35:46 EDT
Lines: 15

I have a clipping from the Teletype News several years back which reads

                        IT'S AN "OCTOTHORP"
   The button on the lower right-hand side of the newer varieties of
   Touch-Tone(r) telephones finally has a name.  Bell Lab Scientists
   dubbed it "octothorp" after the eight points at the ends of the 
   symbol.  Looking something like a tic-tac-toe board, it actually 
   is the symbol for "number" but until recently had no name.  Now
   all twelve Touch-Tone keys have names: 0 through 9, asterisk, and
   the new word added to the language - "octothorp."

I have been using the name "octothorp" ever since, and almost always
have to explain what I mean, even to Bell Labs people.

 - Tom Gloger, Teletype Corporation, (we13|ihnp4)!otuxa!tty3b!tag