AMPERSAND!

The ampersand (&) is a logogram representing the conjunction "and". A logogram is a fundamental unit in written language which represents a word or a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language). The symbol is the ligature of the Latin word et, which means ‘and’. The name ampersand is a contraction of the phrase ‘and per se and’, which means ‘the symbol for and by itself means and’. The symbol can be traced back to the first century AD in ancient Roman script. The ampersand can now be found in many languages that use the Latin alphabet. The evolution of the ampersand from early Roman to today can be seen below. The first example from Pompeii and the early Roman the ET can be seen clearly. As the symbol evolved it became curvier, with the growing popularity of calligraphy. This began to look more like one symbol, instead of two separate letters.

(1. Pompeiian Graffiti, 79 A.D.(2. Early Roman script, around the middle of the 4th century (3. cottish writing, 9th century (4. Carolingian minuscule, 810 A.D.(5. Humanist minuscule, 1453 A.D.(6. William Caslon, London, 1728 (7.Italian Humanist minuscule, .1500 (8.Ludovico degli Arrighi, 1522 (9. Robert Granjon










The main surviving use of the ampersand is in business titles, like lawfirms and architectural firms. Also it is used in titles, and when addressing an envelope to a couple.
There are many variations of the ampersand, some more basic, and others that are more fancy or primitive in appearance. There is also several ways one can write an ampersand. A common example that is often used in everday handwriting is simplified to a backwards E with a vertical line through it, or a + with an E loop.






What is the ampersand a ligature of?