From en.wiktionary.org:
** English
[2007]
*** Alternative forms
- [en]
*** Etymology
Origin [en]. There is no known usage before it was adopted by 吴语: Bell Labs
in the late 1960s or early 1970s, so most sources agree it was coined by
someone at Bell Labs, but accounts from Bell Labs personnel conflict on the
details. The derivation as a traditional term from [en] lacks any evidence,
but there is near universal agreement that the first element refers to the
number eight. Eight is derived from the number of ends of the lines. Thorpe
could be a reference to 吴语: Jim Thorpe, as one proponent was a fan of the
athlete.
*** Pronunciation
- [en]
- [en]
- [en]
*** Noun
[en-noun]
1. [en] The hash or square symbol [mul] , used mainly in telephony and computing .
2. * 1973 , US patent application ser. no. 05/422,816 (filed 3 December 1973), _issued as_ patent no. 3,920,926 (see https://www.google.com/patents/US3920926) (18 November 1975), _Telephone Data Set Including Visual Display Means_ , col. 3 < !-- first published use of the word -->
3. *: The pad 1 provides keys for numerals 0 to 9, while the sextile or asterisk (*) key is decoded to provide a decimal point and the OCTOTHORP ( # ) key generates a command to send the contents of the memory unto the telephone line through a send circuit 7, a coupling circuit 8 and the hybrid network 2.
4. * {{ quote-book | en | year=1982 | author=w:Willard R. Espy | title=A Children's Almanac of Words at Play | url=https://archive.org/details/childrensalmanac00espy | location=New York | publisher=Clarkson N. Potter | page=230 | isbn=978-0-517-54660-4 | accessdate=18 January 2022
|passage= OCTOTHORP is the # on a push-button telephone. Rumor at the
telephone company is that a man named Charles B. Octothorp, wanting to make
his name famous, would approach anyone with a Touch-Tone ’phone, stop, and say
admiringly, “That’s a mighty handsome OCTOTHORP you have there.”}}
1. * [en ]
**** Translations
[octothorpe]
**** See also
- [mul]
- [mul]
- [en]
**** References
- [author=Keith Houston ] .
**** Further reading
- [Number sign]
[en]