AKC6

Sometimes in the U.S. it's called a "twin single." People who live in one might say they live in a "half double."

Years ago, we had a British friend visit us in the U.S. After dinner/supper, he remarked, "I haven't had a screw in years, but I hope to get a rise soon." It so happened he hadn't brought his wife with him, so we were aghast until he explained that a "screw" was a promotion and a "rise" was a raise.

jackal

Even if he had brought his wife with him, that would be a pretty vulgar thing to say! It might be something you'd hear between two good (male) buddies at a bar, though...

dmitritony

OK, I'm really confused about this, surely it is common knowledge what a pound sign is - Ł

Or am I missing something very obvious here?


EDIT

Sorry, hadn't read the later posts that explain it - please ignore this post

Yaatri

Common confusion. If you have not lived i the U.S., Pound sing will invariably make you think of the currency, while an American will instinctively think of the hash mark, or the reasons why hash mark is called the pound sign. I knew what pound sign meant, but never understood what it had to to with the currency. It was pointed out to me that it came from pound, the unit of mass, which was also news to me that hash had any connction with mass/weight.

WillCAD

It has evolved to have the connection to weight over time, however.

Because of the prevalance of the term pound sign for this mark, #, it is now also very common in the US for people to substitute the mark for the word pounds or the abbreviation lb, when referring to weight. It's especially common in texting and emailing, though I have also seen it in technical documents. For instance, someone might say, "I lost 40#!" when texting, allowing them to save ONE WHOLE CHARACTER when typing. Of course, this savings is usually wiped out by following the sentence with fifty emoticons...

Yaatri

So
Use of "#" to mean pounds, the weight, evolved from using pound sign to mean '#"? Not the other way around.

I thought someone here said in response to my question "what does "#" have to do with the currency" that it has nothing to do with the currency, but the weight.

These two statements seem to make a circular argument.

You want to go where?

Not necessarily. There is no doubt in my mind that the reason that it is called the pound sign is that it was used as an abbreviation for the weight. I recall signs in the grocers using '#' before the touch tone keypad was invented. However, I can imagine that a young person who has never encountered that usage could now be using it in texting based on it being called the pound sign, without ever realizing why it is called the pound sign in the first place. That may indeed apply to WillCAD.

Cavman

Not quite, the original meaning was a pound weight of silver pennies, from Wiki (not the best source in the world I know, but I know it's right in this case):

"The pound was a unit of account in Anglo-Saxon England, equal to 240 silver pennies and equivalent to one pound weight of silver. It evolved into the modern British currency, the pound sterling."

One pound sterling used to be be, pre decimalisation, 240 pennies, although not silver pennies for a long time.

Yaatri

It's 240 pence, BTW. It is true that Pound (unit of money) was based on 240 pennies. None of us is old enough to remember personally when the pound was defined that way originally. I think most units of money are historically tied to weight, more accurately mass, of some commodity, generally precious. As the basis of economy shifted from bartering goods to a monetary system, there was a gradual separation currency and mass. There was a time when pound was to big a unit of money for most people. A few hundred pounds would be a substantial sum in not distant a past. Ha'penny, pence, tuppence, thruppenny, six pence, half crown, crown florin and shillings and what not were more useful in every day life than the pound for better part of the last thousand years.
So, yes, pound the currency, has origins in pound, the mass. If you are not an American, "pound" is most likely to make you think of money than mass. Most of the world, even the Brits doesn't think in pounds when talking about mass.
In any case the question was not whether pound, the currency, had a connection to pound, the mass, but whether pound the mass had a connection to "#" the hash mark.

Yaatri

I remember that sign too. But that sign was used quite loosely to indicate quantity in mass (weight), as well as, number. #5 for $.99 could mean 5 pounds of bananas for $1.99, as well as 5 oranges for a $.99.

WillCAD

I don't remember it being called the "pound sign" prior to the widespread adoption of touch-tone phones in the late 70s or so.

But I definitely DO recall the character's older name in the US - the number sign. It could be seen quite often on #2 (No. 2, Number 2) pencils when I was in primary school in the 70s.

I'm pretty sure that it's use as an abbreviation for weight followed its renaming as the pound sign.

AeroWesty

The pound sign to denote weight has been around for at least a century, according to the research done here:

The "pound sign" mystery

It also gives some other names for the symbol I'd forgotten about, such as crosshatch.

Yaatri

Dagger and tilde are used in mathematics and physics to denote physical quantities. I used symbols, including asterisk, at the rate of,or the at sign, as well as the hash mark to sort out long equations. I used them to indicate "like" terms. That was my personal notation and has no relevance here.
The first time, I came across hash makr being used was in the sense of "No." as in apartment number.

Other than use of "#" in grocery stores to indicate the number of boxes, the number of pieces or the number of pounds for a certain price, In every case, it meant a number, NOT pound, the weight. Perhaps some people mistook it to mean pound the unit of mass. The most logical origin of the use of "pound sign" to mean "#" appears to be the location of "#" and the Ł on a typewriter keyboard. I have heard hatch or crosshatch, but didn't want to brig into this discussion as it could only widen confusion.
What I have found curious is the definitive claims made by a few that are not so sound after all. I suppose it's easier to assume that the person who has expressed confusion, doesn't know. Once someone makes that assumption, their belief in wrong information becomes stronger, in which case, they tend to throw dubious information as fact, instead of looking for causes why the some one expressed confusion.

cbn42

I have definitely seen "#" refer to pounds mass in grocery stores. For example, a receipt might say "2.3# bananas @ $.59/lb".

Yaatri

I have already explained that. Here "#" refers to the number, not pounds. As in 5 oranges or 5 pounds.