SYM·0004 · Ligature
Ampersand
“and”
- Unicode
- U+0026 ampersand · Tironian et U+204A
- Meaning
- A whole word — Latin et, “and” — fused into one mark.
- History
- A scribal ligature of e and t; once recited as the 27th letter of the alphabet (“and per se and”).
- Variants
- The most varied glyph in type — from the open Carolingian et to geometric moderns.
- Related
- ⁊ the Tironian et.
- Appears
- Company names, typography specimens, logos.
- Evolution
- Speed-writing shortcut → the designer’s favourite character.
Sources · 3
- documented Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. ampersand — the name a slurring of the schoolroom recitation “and per se and”.
- documented Jan Tschichold, Formenwandlungen der et-Zeichen, 1953 — the ligature traced across the hands that wrote it.
- traditional A Pompeii graffito cited as the earliest surviving ampersand — repeated in nearly every account of the mark, with the identification and the dating both thinner than the repetition suggests.