The History of ‘Ampersand’ (2020)

Re:The History of ‘Ampersand’ (2020) by saurik on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @01:12PM (#32253222)

> The letter I, for example, would be referred to with the phrase I per se, I, which means in Latin "I by itself (is the word) I." When the 27th quasi-letter & was referred to it was called & per se, and, meaning "& by itself (is the word) and." That read as "and per se and."

This explanation is mixed up and confusing. It isn't "I per se, I" that is somehow "by itself I", it is merely "per se I". The reason you get another "and" in front was because it was at the end of the alphabet song: "[and] [per se &]".

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/ampersand

> Thus the end of the recitation would be: “X, Y, Z and per se and”. This last phrase eventually became ampersand, and the term was in common English usage by around 1837.

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Re:The History of ‘Ampersand’ (2020) by pfedak on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @02:24PM (#32254439)

Indeed, this article is embarrassingly wrong. Not sure how anyone could write

> The letter I [...] would be referred to with the phrase I per se, I, which means in Latin "I by itself (is the word) I."

It's the letter I, not the word. It's like a half-remembered explanation

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Re:The History of ‘Ampersand’ (2020) by Jverse on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @06:29PM (#32257860)

Thank you, the article left me very confused about the logic behind two 'and'.

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