Term/Q/What is an octothorpe?

• What is an octothorpe?

  • AI Answer

    • AI/Response
      • Short answer: An octothorpe is the # symbol — the character also called the hash, pound sign, or number sign.
      • Etymology: Coined at Bell Labs in the late 1960s when # was added to the touch-tone telephone keypad. Octo- refers to the symbol's eight points; the -thorpe part is disputed — one Bell Labs account says engineer Don MacPherson added it in honor of Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe, while another traces it to the Old English thorp (village).
      • Other names for #: hash, pound sign (US), number sign, crosshatch, and informally "hashtag" (which strictly names the #-prefixed phrase, not the symbol itself). The musical sharp ♯ is a different glyph.
      • In code-review remarks like "the scenario should require the rationale, not the octothorpe," it refers to the literal # character — i.e., a check should assert on the comment's explanatory text rather than the mere presence of a # comment marker (or Markdown heading marker).
      • Refs: Merriam-Webster — octothorpe, Wikipedia — Number sign