Where Does the

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What’s the #origin of the hashtag symbol?
It’s gone by many names, (the pound sign, the number sign, the octothorpe and the hashtag symbol) and it’s had many meanings, but what is the origin of this # mysterious symbol? Well the truth is it goes back all the way to ancient Rome. But what’s even stranger is that the hashtag symbol can help us understand the always changing nature of the abstraction that is language itself.
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Written and Hosted By: Danielle Bainbridge
Graphics By: Noelle Smith
Directed By: Andrew Kornhaber
Produced By: Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)
Works Cited
Jacques Derrida Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference
Ferdinand de Saussure Course in General Linguistics
Roland Barthes Mythologies
Gayatri Spivak “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
Mikhail Bahktin The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays
Sylvia Wynter “Ethno or Socio Poetics”
Hortense Spillers “Interstices: A Small Drama of Words”
www.bgdblog.org/2014/04/semio...
www.wired.com/2017/05/oral-hi...
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
www.newstatesman.com/sci-tech/...
• Octothorpe: the histor...
• What is a Hashtag?
"semiotics, n.". OED Online. June 2017. Oxford University Press. www.oed.com/view/Entry/175724?...
18 year old voting rate:
www.washingtonpost.com/news/t...

Пікірлер: 177

@AlliCrain 6 жыл бұрын

As a music teacher, I'm really bothered by the fact that this video doesn't address the use of this symbol as the sharp sign in music.

@pbsorigins 6 жыл бұрын

Allison Crain hi thanks for watching! So I actually answered this question at the end of this week's episode on Columbus. Since so many people had the same question as you I did a little digging and it turns out there's a slightly different trajectory of these two signs. Check it out!

@SpritualTechniques 6 жыл бұрын

Allison Crain Why don’t you address it rather ?

@desanipt 6 жыл бұрын

It's not the same symbol. The difference may be a bit too subtle but still.

@captainhoratiobungleiii7147 5 жыл бұрын

How many kids have asked you what hash tag F means?

@chlxbear 5 жыл бұрын

Boohoo you stop getting bothered over small stuff. Sharp signs and hash tags are different symbols, get your facts straight.

@markholder8 4 жыл бұрын

When I was little it was a tiny tic-tac-toe board.

@SuperManning11 5 жыл бұрын

This series is genius. Danielle, your style of presentation is just perfect! You lead us to higher levels of thought and vocabulary in a way that is not daunting or off-putting in any way. The topics are always interesting and filled with little surprises. Who would have thought that a hashtag video would actually address semiotics? But of course, that is the level of understanding that you are going for, and it is much appreciated!

@KaritKtana 4 жыл бұрын

Precisely! Couldn't have said it better myself. 👏👏

@musicalintentions 5 жыл бұрын

Your hair and outfit are amazing. As a music teacher it's interesting to hear many students call the sharp sign (musical symbol) a hashtag. The sharp sign has its own distinct history, of course.

@pbsvoices 6 жыл бұрын

#DidntExpectASemioticsLesson #NotUpsetAboutIt

@joshou3759 6 жыл бұрын

PBS Digital Studios #firstreply #hiboss

@Saltwaterhair 5 жыл бұрын

#nicedress

@Cjnw 4 жыл бұрын

#Semiótico

@wesleyrm76 6 жыл бұрын

I agree with the comments that ask how # came to mean "sharp" or "number." Also, I'm a physics teacher, and I love the way you explain things, so hopefully one of your future episodes is science-related so I can share it in class!

@pbsorigins 6 жыл бұрын

Wesley Morgan thanks so much for watching!

@alywi 3 жыл бұрын

I adore these videos. Thank you for sharing the information you find! I love bringing up the topics to avoid talking about divisive issues with my parents (there are many ways our opinions differ greatly).

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@shtev2218 6 жыл бұрын

This channel rocks, keep it up!

@oqardZ 6 жыл бұрын

The symbol # is NOT hashtag! This is hashtag: #ignoramuses because # is _hash_ and ignoramuses is a tag - all together a hashtag.

@Lightning_Lance 6 жыл бұрын

Too late man, sorry. Too many people already picked up on calling the thing a hashtag.

@cynthiaayers7696 3 жыл бұрын

Then I'm going to turn the word (and) into a new meaning. It means, anybody that uses #whatever? is stupid. So every time you read something, and you see the word "and", remember this means you are stupid... sound cool to you.? Stirring the pot.😅

@oqardZ 3 жыл бұрын

@@cynthiaayers7696 What you wrote is a non sequitur to my comment. I'm completely baffled by a route you had to take from my comment to end up with your comment. Please rethink it. This might help: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag

@JuFated 5 жыл бұрын

Im old enough to remember that I actually saw a dial phone. And actually for the longest time, I always wondered why they were calling the number sign suddenly a hashtag.

@meltedicecreamsandwich 5 жыл бұрын

Thought it was called the pound sign on phones

@cynthiaayers7696 3 жыл бұрын

I look at a 1950s dictionary and could not find it. But I'm old enough to remember it was used for both pound and number sign. And I used the rotary phone. Give it another 50 years and you won't recognize the English language..?

@allanrichardson9081 3 жыл бұрын

@@cynthiaayers7696 How did you enter it on a rotary phone?

@radialintrepid 4 жыл бұрын

new favorite channel!!!

@jackalbeam2532 3 жыл бұрын

I've been using this symbol for tic-tac-toe!!!

@CoryDaehn 6 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you gave some love to the octothorpe

@caravantea 6 жыл бұрын

Great episode! I knew some of this vaguely, but definitely not in this much detail.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@nouvilas42 6 жыл бұрын

In Spanish, the hashtag is often called "almohadilla", because (as far as I can tell) it kind of resembles a type of ashlar called the same way. (Also "almohadilla" can mean "small pillow" or "small cushion" which is kinda funny ;D )

@SpritualTechniques 6 жыл бұрын

Great job explaining how the hashtag # originally began !

@disismyphotos5 2 жыл бұрын

#Hashtag

@songwright 5 жыл бұрын

I think it's just because this symbol looks like hash browns.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@lew8176 5 жыл бұрын

In Polish we used to call # "płotek" and that's diminutive of "fence". Interesting video! I love how your content is astute, that's quite uncommon on KZfaq.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

@markbennett8256 6 жыл бұрын

A true tour de force on this one! Great job! I am an engineering-type nerd, so semiotics is a bit out of my bailiwick, but I always love learning something new. I guess I am doing them out of order, but hey, I've been known to throw caution to the wind and live dangerously on occasion. :-)

@iamahacker8324 3 жыл бұрын

##hashtag Fun fact: a hash in programming is to mark a comment in python

@ifeanyistephen5565 3 жыл бұрын

Good day sir, please can you put me through in programming

@lalasha19 6 жыл бұрын

Your outfits in this episode!!!! I love them.

@silentsmurf 3 жыл бұрын

I never knew why it was called the pound sign! How interesting. I still use # on calls, but I really don't remember what the * was for other than *69 which came out in the late nineties....

@allanrichardson9081 3 жыл бұрын

Once your phone is actually in an AUDIO conversation with a computer at the other end, in most such systems the * means cancel either this thread of entries or the number you have started to enter (i.e. correct a typo), while the # means the number (especially if variable length) or the set of numbers is correct, and the computer can respond to them. In other words * means reset and # means end of entry, continue.

@silentsmurf 3 жыл бұрын

@@allanrichardson9081 wow, thank you 🙏 That’s helpful. I will try it out next time!

@KaritKtana 4 жыл бұрын

#subscribed !

@djnoah225 4 жыл бұрын

This is how times she said hashtag | | | V

@markholder8 4 жыл бұрын

Love the shout out to Shrek!

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@zanyiakelly1982 3 жыл бұрын

5 seconds in and had to comment... I'm not sure of the host's name but she came to slay in this video. This is maybe the third video I've seen with her and she's gorgeous.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@viperstew7819 6 жыл бұрын

Piling on to other comments: use for number and sharp should have been covered. Also, agree that hashtag is the whole of the symbol plus topic: #origin.

@sarahhaddad8385 6 жыл бұрын

Just bingewatched the channel after watching crashcourse IT. Lovely channel you've got here! I am surprised you haven't promoted it earlier/ enough. The presenter has so much energy and her excitement is viral! Keep it up :D

@danielrhouck 6 жыл бұрын

IT is not the same as CS. It's Crash Course Computer Science, not Crash Course Information Technology.

@sarahhaddad8385 6 жыл бұрын

Daniel Houck Yes! Indeed! Thank you. I know ut isn't the same :) I am not a regular there but I guess I need to :D

@sofiadeen4504 5 жыл бұрын

I am #blessed after watching this video

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@user-lh8ex6ik2d 5 жыл бұрын

I just learned it from C#

@andrewweston3783 4 жыл бұрын

#blessing

@Krthaspecialist 8 ай бұрын

Bring it on home now sis

@Kristiansolis15 3 жыл бұрын

Jimmy has a panda named hashtag

@terriehumphries6028 5 жыл бұрын

I do not like the over use of the #hashtag. Some people #hashtag everything. It gets annoying reading #20 consective #hashtags.

@Wolfy39565 5 жыл бұрын

My heas hurts🤯😖

@RevJSS 6 жыл бұрын

What about # meaning number, as in #2 pencil? Where does this meaning fall in the evolution of the meaning of #?

@pbsorigins 6 жыл бұрын

RevJSS thanks for watching! I answered this in the Q & A from this week's episode on Columbus. Check it out!

@Juliajett19 3 жыл бұрын

I remember when hashtag was called pound!😏

@paigemurphy7770 5 жыл бұрын

I used landlines. Every sentence has at least 1 noun and 1 adjective. #I do.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@tingtingx8 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome video! You should make a lot more! Great presentation skills!!!!

@justinklajbor1036 Жыл бұрын

What about IRC the original online chat that used #.......

@zenvio 2 жыл бұрын

it’s called the pound sign and I’m screaming right now because you’re using “hashtag everything”

@sergiotea 4 жыл бұрын

I use # to indicate my apartment number. #219

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@skpjoecoursegold366 6 жыл бұрын

now i know.

@bonbonbons 5 жыл бұрын

I remember being so confused when people started referring to the pound sign as a hashtag sign

@jasondiaz8431 3 жыл бұрын

Still a pound sign even sounds cooler 😎

@joshualunderville1349 5 жыл бұрын

Pound sign. Pound sign. Pound sign. Uuummm.... pound sign!!!!! Hashtag??... pound sign!!!

@kevin4gwen 5 жыл бұрын

I'm from Canada and it still legal to drink at the age of 18 but we're more responsible here When it comes to drinking, my family has an approached that doesn't make us go crazy when we turn drinking age.. it's actually almost boring when we become drinking age, because from a young age its never something that's what forbidden knowledge or unknown to us..

@kirarasmom4274 5 жыл бұрын

Love your dress and hair.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@Rampala 5 жыл бұрын

This is my favorite episode so far, Danielle. Don't ever stop talking nerdy to me.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@sanchezable 6 ай бұрын

Sharp notes in music look like #

@danielrhouck 6 жыл бұрын

I don't think you mentioned the tic-tac-toe board.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@techne9 6 жыл бұрын

My Queen!!!

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@HafidhaSofia 6 жыл бұрын

I loved this, totally taken aback by the shift to semiotics, but that was a fabulous summary.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@HepCatJack 3 жыл бұрын

I'm sorry but the Hash Tag / Pound Sign / Cross Hatch symbol is much older than that. It has shown up along with other petroglyphs in 40,000 year old cave art. The asterisk has also shown up in this cave art. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rNGmf6Ziu9jSpn0.html

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@shawnkerr 5 жыл бұрын

How about the origin of the @ symbol.

@andrewweston3783 4 жыл бұрын

Omg it works

@jasondiaz8431 3 жыл бұрын

Its a pound sign dam it.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@Sssadow 5 жыл бұрын

My favorite part was learning why pounds are abbreviated lb

@Kristiansolis15 3 жыл бұрын

#HashtagThePanda

@FFUDS 6 жыл бұрын

I remember when I would always get so angry when people used the word "hashtag". "It's a pound sign!" I would exclaim, until I learned about the #Octothorp so I shut up about it.

@johndelong5574 2 жыл бұрын

Funny she doesnt look nerdish.

@Anabel-nb8pj 5 жыл бұрын

Lady you’re amazing. Teachers should get inspiration from you

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@jasonmilam7204 3 жыл бұрын

But in that tweet, Chris does not ask to call it 'name I shall not vindicate here', he asks to call it (pound). This video does not explain where 'again name not vindicated here' actually became stamped into the brains of less efficient beings. The use of one syllable is more efficient than using more than one. Pound..hmmm, let me do the maths here....nope only one and it took less time to say than to write this writ of oddity. Le sigh, soon all our base belong to other beings that no can talk too good like you an me...eye....I. "Help help, I'm bein' regressed!"

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@user-hm9bo4xi2v 18 сағат бұрын

#Hashtag guy

@GreySlayz3605 2 жыл бұрын

#nevergonnagiveyouup

@DanieldeLima8 6 жыл бұрын

I wish the video had more information about why the # is used in music and if the symbol also is derived from "lb". And if so, why.

@pbsorigins 6 жыл бұрын

Daniel de Lima hey thanks for watching! Check out the Q&A at the end of this week's episode on Columbus to find out the answer to this question!

@michellemeek2278 5 жыл бұрын

As someone with a masters in Linguistics, I'm glad to see #linguisticsinreallife

@odizzido 6 жыл бұрын

Interesting, I like this :)

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@user-vm5ud4xw6n 3 жыл бұрын

Since I’m not into social media, I’m sticking to this little guy as a symbol for weight.

@GirladyLocks 3 жыл бұрын

#youlearnsomethingeveryday

@alindatonia2226 3 жыл бұрын

Sorry i broke 123 comments to 124 which is not in order

@user-hm9bo4xi2v 18 сағат бұрын

#Yourself

@AbbieThoms 5 жыл бұрын

A pound sign in the uk is a £

@markusTegelane 4 жыл бұрын

That's a different kind of pound

@thenegativoneify 2 жыл бұрын

Nerd!!!!

@greg4629 6 жыл бұрын

also it's fair to say the hashtag is now redundant on twitter for anything but convention/affect since links, categories and search have improved.

@goodsirknight 6 жыл бұрын

@DJcroc-hg5dd 6 жыл бұрын

I really wonder about the part where she said pressing the # on the phone let her know if it's a snowy day. Was it used to hear the weather reports? Someone older, please tell me.

@rparl 6 жыл бұрын

DJ croc2016 presumably, she called the school's number, then pressed # when the "machine" answered. Years ago I programmed (Panasonic) Voice Mail systems which allowed * and # to be used in response to a menu.

@IcyMidnight 5 жыл бұрын

Calling the # symbol "hashtag" is like calling the - symbol "negative number". Though perhaps the usage has shifted, the symbol is the hash (or pound, or octothorpe) and the thing the computer recognizes as a special token, a tag, is the hash tag, i.e. the hash + a tag = a hashtag -- # + origins = #origins

@user-lm4co5cb4r 5 жыл бұрын

This channel doesn’t receive as much recognition as it deserves.

@Kyooooooooqq 2 жыл бұрын

#井 *米

@gwgux 5 жыл бұрын

Octothorpe.....OMG. I haven't heard that term in many years. I'm only in my mid thirties and it's times like this that I realize I know a lot of random trivia that feels too obscure for even the Jeapardy show to use. The # is probably the the most abused symbol we have. It's used for many, many things. I didn't know how it came to be used on Twitter but on Linux computers the # simply means that everything after it is a comment in shell scripts. Since Twitter does run Linux servers for hosting their site I thought they used it in Twitter because their admins and developers were already using it for comments on Twitter's servers so until they explained how it came to be used, I thought well, # was already for comments before #comments were a thing so it was a natural progression. Interesting video.

@amandaward2737 4 жыл бұрын

#prayforaldran

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@UmmYeahOk 5 жыл бұрын

"Hello, and welcome to moviefone"

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@user-hm9bo4xi2v 18 сағат бұрын

#Replay

@iLetStudio 2 жыл бұрын

#iletstudio

@chrisgurney2467 6 жыл бұрын

£ = Libra/Pound as well

@Floradoc1 4 жыл бұрын

Symbols on a phone:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,*,0,# and that’s it...

@aubreypotter96 2 жыл бұрын

#beckbrojack

@SaFirePhoenix 5 жыл бұрын

"Those of you old enough to remember..." is the most offensive sentence I've ever heard. I feel personally attacked.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@DLCaster 6 жыл бұрын

When I first saw hashtags used in the way they have come to be known, I immediately associated them with the notion of symbol, which if you think about it makes perfect sense. Smalltalk, one of the very first pure object-oriented programming languages, used (and still uses) the # as a syntactic introducer to an object of class Symbol. In fact, Smalltalk class names like all globals in the system and method selectors (like #at:put: which is the method selector for placing things in indexed collections such as at: 10 put: 'Ten') are all symbols. In Smalltalk, mentioning a symbol explicitly is notated # and immediately causes the internment of an instance of Symbol if it is not already defined. In Smalltalk, every mention of #foo is identical (in Smalltalk notated ==) to every other instance of #foo and there is only one object #foo in the system symbol table. In other words, each symbol has a single object identity-there are not two independent instances of #foo in a single Smalltalk system.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@FantasySocialMedia 3 жыл бұрын

@mfvieira89 5 жыл бұрын

In Medicine it's used as a unofficial shorthand for fracture

@rparl 6 жыл бұрын

Only programming nerds will care that you didn't explain #! #PYTHON hash bang

@rparl 6 жыл бұрын

Sorry. It's bash, not Python.

@andrescouturier6991 6 жыл бұрын

Could have commented on tic tac toe.

@LoriWolfcat 5 жыл бұрын

#- Hipsters use of tagging #- Pound #- Number #- Music note I hate hashtags, but it’s cuz there’s no button for tagging like there is in literally everything else.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@avrilcruz1415 5 жыл бұрын

I’m deeply offended you never mentioned the sharp.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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@sandravanek869 6 жыл бұрын

So, the logic behind military conscription at age 18 (an age commonly understood as not really mature), is that a soldier only needs to be trained to to obey. Any dog can do that. Hence the dog tags.

@user-rv6fe7uh4j 2 жыл бұрын

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