What’s your sign, and how much does it weigh?

Currency symbols are almost invisible. We see them everywhere, but we rarely give them a thought, so let’s take a look at two of them.

Why is the symbol for the British pound sterling a stylized italic upper case L? It’s an abbreviated form of libra, Latin for pound or “pair of scales.” Libra is also the source of the abbreviation for the measurement lb.

Why is the dollar sign an S with one or two bisecting vertical rules? This all-American glyph is actually an immigrant. It comes to us from the Spanish peso. A stylized Ps, was an abbreviation for pesos in the New World. In English, it was first recorded in the 1770s in manuscripts and is seen in print in the early nineteenth century.

Again, a tip of the Textwrapper’s chapeau to the brilliant Humez brothers.

My rich uncial…

Why do we trundle out the uncials, along with the corned beef, for St. Patrick’s Day? Perhaps it’s the association of uncials with the Book of Kells.

Uncials, also known as majuscules, are a script form which was developed during the early Byzantine era (fourth century) along with the new media of parchment and vellum. They are used decoratively in modern graphic design, and they are employed excessively as St. Patrick’s Day approaches. They lack a lower case, so they are difficult to read as text.

The etymology of uncial goes something like, “from Latin uncialis, from uncia (inch),” but Alexander & Nicholas Humez, in their brilliant book ABC ET CETERA The Life & Times of the Roman Alphabet, offer other etymologies. Uncial also could have been St. Jerome’s reference to either illuminated letters, or to “hooked” letters, depending upon how uncialibus was misspelled by the Saintly Dalmatian.

Either way, I agree with St. Jerome. Use uncials sparingly. Legibility is more important than ornamentation.

At’s what I’m talkin’ about…

The ubiquitous, iconic at symbol has a mysterious historical trail. It was included on typewriters as early as 1885, and the roots of the symbol may go back to 16th century Europe. There was no place for @ in traditional typesetting, and there was no nook for the character in the California Job Case.

I had always associated the @ symbol with retail sales and accountancy. It suddenly entered my world when I started using e-mail in the mid ’90s. It was then that the esoteric work of Ray Tomlinson became as familiar to me as as the common octothorpe.