From: Timothy Partridge (timpart@perdix.demon.co.uk)
Date: Wed Apr 27 2005 - 14:19:29 CST
Jon Hanna recently said:
> > >U+002F "SOLIDUS" = virgule, shilling (British)
[snip]
> No, d was the abbreviation of penny, from the Roman "denarius", s was the
> abbreviation of shilling, from the Roman "solidus". While / was a separator
> at the same time it could be read as "shilling" in 2/6, though clearly not
> in £4/2/6. So £3 4s 6d or £3/4/6 would be the notations used.
I wouldn't put a slash between the pounds and the shillings. £3 4s. 6d. or
the older 3l. 4s. 6d. (There once was a time when bright young things could
telegraph home "Send more lsd" when lsd meant money.) The l is for the Latin
libra (pound, also scales)
> > >U+002A "ASTERISK" = star (on phone keypads)
> > >-- is calling an asterisk a "star" restricted to
> > >phones (C programmers call it a star as well) ?
> > >Do I care ?
>
> C programmers use that consciously as somewhere between jargon and slang, as
> indeed they may use "splat", "gear", "twinkle", "glob" and other names. I
> don't think we need note the terms programmers use of most symbols outside
> of jargon.txt.
Asterisk comes from Latin asteriscus (little star) from Latin aster (star).
Tim
-- Tim Partridge. Any opinions expressed are mine only and not those of my employer
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