Sometimes used to indicate weight, how is an
octothorpe better known as?
To know the answer, let's study history a bit, beginning with the
octothorpe.
Houston (blogger, Edinburgh) combines an interesting history of punctuation marks, such as the pilcrow,
octothorpe, and ampersand, with setting them in their context, not only within the relatively small world of typesetting but in their overall milieu.
Houston has infused a seemingly mundane subject with considerable verve & erudition, inspiring us to pepper these pages with the en dash, em dash, pilcrow, interrobang, circumflex, manicule, virgule (aka solidus), guillemet, asterisk, dagger, double dagger, ellipsis, hedera (aka fleuron), ampersand, and
octothorpe (aka hashtag).
The pound key (#) on the keyboard is called an
OCTOTHORPE.
Usually regarded as a sign for a number, the correct term for the # symbol is an
octothorpe.
The
octothorpe that signifies "insert space." The backwards capital P of "begin new paragraph." The carets fulcruming sentences, adding commas or apostrophes or quotation marks.