Buzz
Anyone reading this list is already familiar with what a hashtag is. They’ve become ubiquitous on the internet, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a social media platform or app that doesn’t feature them.
Despite their widespread use, many misconceptions about hashtags persist, including the history of the once lesser-known hash symbol, which was initially used mainly by business professionals. Let’s clear up these misunderstandings once and for all. Buckle up; this list will surprise you.
10. The distinction between hash and hashtag
It’s crucial to distinguish between the hash symbol and the hashtag, especially before diving deeper into this fascinating and enlightening list.
The symbol (#) represents the hash, while the symbol coupled with a word forms a hashtag. For example, #Mytour is a hashtag, but just # alone isn’t. Despite this, many people mistakenly refer to the # symbol as a hashtag.
It’s no surprise that we often mispronounce #Mytour as “hashtag Mytour” instead of “hash Mytour.” However, you shouldn’t go around calling it “hash Mytour,” as people might think you're from another planet. We’ll explain why in the final point.
8. Its actual name isn’t hash or hashtag
Earlier, we discussed how Chris referred to the hash symbol as “pound” in his tweet. That wasn’t an error. The term “hashtag” didn’t exist when he tweeted. The word 'hash' is quite recent, and it’s only one of the many names for the pound sign.
Many, especially in the United States, refer to the hash symbol as “pound” because it originated from ‘lb’, the abbreviation for pound, a unit of weight widely used in the U.S. ‘Lb’ itself is short for ‘libra pondo,’ Latin for “pound by weight.” Over time, 'lb' transformed into # as scribes added a stroke to the upper part of the letters.
The pound symbol is known as hash due to its resemblance to the stripes found on military uniforms, which are also referred to as hash. Its official name, however, is octothorpe, especially when used on telephones or the internet.
Researchers at Bell Laboratories coined the term when they added the hash button to telephones. They chose ‘octo-’ because of its eight points. The origin of ‘-thorpe’ is uncertain, but linguists (experts in word origins) believe it was either named after U.S. athlete Jim Thorpe or the Old Norse word for ‘farm’ or ‘field.’
7. It was added to telephones for no specific reason
In 1963, manufacturers of telephones introduced the touch-tone system to address the dialing issues that plagued early phones.
With this new system, each key on a telephone’s keypad was assigned a unique tone, made up of two distinct sounds: one from its row and the other from its column. These tones may seem unnecessary or annoying, but they are crucial for identifying the number being dialed.
This means a telephone with 12 buttons arranged in the usual 3 rows and 4 columns (3×4) is capable of producing 12 different sounds. However, early telephones only had 10 buttons, with the 0 key occupying the last row, leaving the two extra spaces (and their corresponding tones) on either side of 0 unused.
Engineers at AT&T, which owned Bell Laboratories at the time, introduced the * and # buttons to make use of these unused spaces. Initially, these buttons had no function, and the engineers hoped someone would eventually find a use for them. Eventually, these buttons became essential for accessing various phone features, which is still their primary function today.
6. There are two different types of hash
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency that sets global standards for communication technologies, released a manual in 1988 advising telephone manufacturers to organize their numbers and symbols in one of three possible layouts.
The first layout is the common 3×4 arrangement, featuring 123 at the top, followed by 456, 789, and finally *0#. The other two layouts are the less common 2×6 and 6×2 arrangements. However, the ITU also allowed phone manufacturers to use the now-obsolete 3×3 (+1), 5×2, or 2×5 layouts if they opted to exclude the * and # buttons.
When it comes to the # symbol, the ITU acknowledges two versions of the hash button. One is the European version, standing upright at a 90-degree angle, while the American version is slightly slanted to the right at an 80-degree angle.
Nowadays, the 90-degree version seems to have faded into obscurity, with the 80-degree version becoming the dominant symbol. It’s worth noting that the ITU referred to the hash symbol as a square.
5. Why is C# called C-sharp and not C-hash?
Many, especially novice programmers, mistakenly refer to the C# programming language as C-hash or C-pound instead of its correct name, C-sharp. This can be confusing. So, why is it called C-sharp, even though it’s spelled with a hash or pound symbol, depending on your preference?
Anders Hejlsberg, the man who headed the team that developed C#, explained that the original name for the language was 'Cool,' which stood for 'C like Object Oriented Language.' However, they abandoned this name because it proved difficult to trademark.
The team looked to the C++ programming language for naming inspiration. They added two plus signs to create C++++, and then combined all four plus signs to resemble the sharp sign (?) used in music. Technically, C-sharp should be written as C?, not C#. However, the hash symbol is commonly used since it's easier to access on keyboards.
4. Why Chris never patented the hashtag
Chris could have become a millionaire or even a billionaire if he had patented the hashtag, but he chose not to. In a response posted on Quora, Chris shared that he didn’t patent the hashtag for two main reasons.
The first reason was that a patent would have granted him a monopoly, which would have slowed down or possibly prevented the widespread use of hashtags. He felt this would be counterproductive and against the very purpose of creating the hashtag. His goal was to encourage people to use it—lots of people.
Chris also stated that hashtags are a product of the internet and shouldn’t be owned by any individual. He has no desire to profit from them; the joy of seeing people use them is compensation enough. So go ahead, use more hashtags and make Chris Messina happy!
3. Why it’s a controversial term
The hashtag officially became a part of the English language when it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in June 2014. Before that, it was simply another piece of slang.
The Oxford English Dictionary only adds new words once they’ve gained widespread usage. Many words start as slang or are borrowed from other languages before they are considered legitimate English terms.
However, the Oxford English Dictionary made things a bit more complex by defining the hashtag as either a word or phrase following the hash symbol, or the symbol itself, especially when used on phones or computers. This means it’s technically correct to refer to # as a hashtag, and #Mytour would be referred to as 'hashtag Mytour.'
In case you're wondering why we didn’t clarify this at the start of the list, we aimed to avoid confusion between the symbol and the term. Throughout this list, we’ve used both 'hash' and 'hashtag' frequently, and switching between the two could have been confusing if we kept referring to # both as hash and hashtag.
2. The Origin of Its Name
In entry #2, we talked about how Chris Messina referred to the hash symbol as 'pound' in his famous tweet. What we didn’t mention, however, is that he initially wanted to call hashtags 'channel tags' or 'tag channels,' but those names never gained popularity.
So, where exactly did the term 'hashtag' originate?
For the answer, let’s turn to Stowe Boyd. On the same day Chris proposed the hashtag, Stowe Boyd commented on his post, suggesting that we should call the combination of the hash symbol and its accompanying word 'hash tags.' Yes, it’s intentional—'hash tag' was meant to be the correct term, not 'hashtag.'
At some point, someone merged the two words, though we have no idea who. It’s possible that the person didn't even realize they were coining a new term, likely doing it by mistake.
1. How lb Evolved into #
We’ve already mentioned that the hash symbol has its roots in lb, the abbreviation for the Latin term 'libra pondo.' Now, let’s dive deeper into the history behind this transformation.
The Romans used the abbreviation lb for libra pondo, a unit of weight. This practice continued until it entered the English language, where scribes added a stroke over the l and b to mark it as a shortened form.
Over time, the stroked lb gradually morphed into the # symbol, as scribes focused more on speed than perfect spelling. At the same time, the symbol started being used to represent 'No.' in English, such as #1 meaning 'No. 1' and #2 meaning 'No. 2.'
This is why the symbol is often referred to as the number sign. It also explains why typewriter manufacturers kept the # symbol, along with @, which businesspeople used as a shorthand for 'at the rate of.' Since typewriters were originally marketed to businesspeople, it made sense to retain these symbols for their convenience.
# was added to telephones for the same reasons we covered in entry #4.
