What you term the pound sign, derives from the Latin libra, pound. The word was altered into livre, £ (1550's), as a French monetary amount equal to one pound of silver. The unit of measure was changed to the term franc. Today the same symbol is used as designation for the English pound - at one time worth one pound sterling.
Mark -----Original Message----- From: lilypond-user-bounces+carsonmark=ca.rr....@gnu.org [mailto:lilypond-user-bounces+carsonmark=ca.rr....@gnu.org] On Behalf Of J Martin Rushton Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2016 3:17 PM To: lilypond-user@gnu.org Subject: Re: When to Use Pound Signs -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Just for the record: "£" is a pound sign, "#" is a hash. Calling the hash sign a pound sign goes way back to the days of ASCII-7 and national ASCII variants. The UK national variant had a pound sign where plain ASCII had a hash. If anyone is _really_ interested, the £ sign is a capital "L" (for libra, Latin for a pound) with a line through it, a bit like dollars and letter "S". -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJWjE74AAoJEAF3yXsqtyBlVL4QAL/QEuFJTWMElZMCxJi0ui7N CRE/mm3NjFh2CBeN7DWbO8wymTejqwRWNn1+gVuH+1epoG0obgNfAjfUgxZLL4yg 6QWllqWOjqD33kZCKGCi8ZTPAGTgh1PZXmnOTBeFPQzETekTyYAhqbJwfbYl1KkT 4CJzfhs2d4k/BrqEDMNrk1S3JTprnYbWuzUhcI6XswEuT1qtyh4OpK843WrhqeDh AG6MZINYmtTGEMYuOsE+kOv9ffB1kJhvogf8ZJGxZrmlTnK/mX0ye8oUNXk38igK ibTv1Yu4UEKhMz9i5hVUmUlP4Da4HGvlvbEgln361oSNa47chVpF5SrJ6C4c/uTO jTtiYFO8tu2zZVPz+Ql0WJRKgcAgRKGyQOH5foc79mz9e/TG9UVB78DDuNN3neOU PUz10drkgQdnSIbTvXmLbFk4G8s9Nfo3pBIEPM6SCBctlhRuyoQAddvI3l19bHoX E4CCpdzHw+CzuMydZBJ2hb5POOXVp9TxfrQ0KNOccivQcqYLZQr/oCWqzXPZqep+ J5Son7mC0OR4CAc340YUKcxvU1j78SzexDGpN3OcTVHMMU0Pjdab6ZUeGpxUWNh0 NAMCIwosUvuLEjzakpvz+Xh75pQNDZqh8HA8r2yDgbxlc1IPUaUNxC3nBVAv7TTT hSr1vXPbIX1WinSoEcYs =5Aeh -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user