Tried to use the search engine to ask about "how to pronounce #"
but the search engine treated "#" as a comment and it tried to be "smart" and is telling me how to pronounce the word "to" instead.
I also tried "how to pronounce the # symbol", "the # sign", but it just tells me how to pronounce "symbol" or "sign"
🤕
@mariatta In case you didn’t find it, Wikipedia has a good write up on the varied things that is called: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign#Names
I like “Octothorpe”, but I don’t think that’s nearly as common as “pound” or “hash” in American English. (Hashtag as the name for that symbol seems to have skyrocketed in the past 10-15 years).
@diazona @pganssle I was just thinking how to say "#" when giving a talk when referring to Python code comments. I know in some regions it's also called the "pound" or "number" sign, but then I couldn't remember which one is more universally known, and which one is more of a Canadian/British thing, so I thought I'd do a quick lookup on the internet. 🤕
I actually never heard of "octothorpe" until now.. maybe because English isn't my first language.
@pganssle thank you!
@pganssle @mariatta I always find this interesting to think about. My guess would also be that "hashtag" or "hash" is the most common usage today (in AmE), and probably by a very wide margin. I suspect some people would recognize "octothorpe", if they saw or heard it, as the technical term for that symbol, but it's extremely rare in normal conversation.
(I'm not sure if the original point of this thread was looking for an answer but I think we're veering off of that regardless 🤔)