{"id":2059,"date":"2019-09-01T20:03:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T20:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/?p=2059"},"modified":"2024-04-20T23:22:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T23:22:44","slug":"ampersand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/blog\/2019\/09\/01\/ampersand\/","title":{"rendered":"Ampersand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As part of my blogging activities, I publish a weekly Fun Facts About English<\/a><\/em> series that offers tidbits of trivia about the English language. This has turned out to be quite a pleasurable indulgence in that I get to research somewhat obscure but fascinating facts. I set out with a goal of creating 50 facts for one year’s worth of posts. I’m about half-way through and feel a bit smarter for the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, I’m going to explain the simple factoid below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Donald's<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it would be better to say, “the & glyph was per se<\/em> the 27th character<\/em> included with the alphabet.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

History<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Donald's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Latin, the ampersand represents a cursive<\/a> combination of the two letters E<\/em> and T<\/em> and is pronounced et<\/em>, or and<\/em> in English. Around the time when Old English was shedding its runic characters<\/a> and adopting the Latin alphabet, the & ligature arrived as part of the orthographic package, and to this day continues to be used to represent the word and<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Donald's<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Why ampersand?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The ampersand was included in schoolbooks as the 27th letter of the English alphabet until the mid 19th century. It was understood not as a vowel or consonant, but as a useful symbol<\/em>, added to the hind end of the alphabet, and simply known as and<\/em>. Today, when we recite the ABCs, we often say “X, Y, and Z.” Two centuries ago, children’s chants included and<\/em> (&) as the last letter. To say “X, Y, Z, and and<\/em>” was a bit confusing, so the Latin phrase per se<\/em> – meaning by or in itself<\/em> – was inserted. In recitations, it sounded like this: X<\/em>, Y<\/em>, Z<\/em>, and per se<\/em> and<\/em> (&). Eventually, and-per-se-and<\/em> slurred into ampersand<\/em>, a mondegreen<\/a> that we use today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the late 1800s, the word ampersand<\/em> also became a slang term for “rear end, posterior,” or “the buttocks.” Over time, the & glyph was de-classified within the alphabet, its usage decreased, and today is often frowned upon when used in modern writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, best of luck in your classes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Kinney
Kinney Brothers Publishing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of my blogging activities, I publish a weekly Fun Facts About English series that offers tidbits of trivia about the English language. This has turned out to be quite a pleasurable indulgence in that I get to research somewhat obscure but fascinating facts. I set out with a goal of creating 50 facts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[132,1352,108,20,104,593,101,96,596,11,539,493,1520],"class_list":{"0":"post-2059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kinney-brothers-publishing","8":"tag-alphabet","9":"tag-alphabet-evolution","10":"tag-ampersand","11":"tag-donalds-english-classroom","12":"tag-english-language","13":"tag-etymology","14":"tag-fun-facts","15":"tag-fun-facts-about-english","16":"tag-history","17":"tag-kinney-brothers-publishing","18":"tag-language-evolution","19":"tag-linguistics","20":"tag-trivia","21":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/BLOG_AMPERSAND2.png?fit=250%2C249&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GlQB-xd","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2059"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11092,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions\/11092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinneybrothers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}