Andreas Prilop, Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:09:44 +0200 (CEST): > On Mon, 13 Aug 2012, Karl Pentzlin wrote: > >> The problem I am confronted with is that this character shares >> its German name "Raute" with the "#" > > I learnt in 7th grade what “Raute” means. > “#” is not a Raute.
It is simpler to say what it is not than it is to say what it is ... (See below.) > The center field of “#” is called Raute or Rhombus. ··· snip ··· > But if you don’t understand the difference between > a Raute and a Nummernzeichen, you probably can’t tell > an apostrophe (’) from an acute accent (´) either. You should by more sympathetic to your own (German) "misunderstandings" - and also pay more attention to what Karl said here: ]] (The name "Raute" for "#" seems to derive from the International Telecommunication Union standard ITU-T E.161, which requires the name "square, or the most commonly used equivalent term in other languages" [[ In Norwegian, the '#' on a phone keyboard is called 'firkanttast' = 'square key'. The name has always puzzled me as everyone can see that it isn't really what we usually mean by a square/quadrat/firkant/Viereck. But when I hear that is a result of an ITU standard, then I understand it better ... The word 'Raute' reminds of the Norwegian 'rute' - and my Norwegian book on etymology assumes that 'rute' is derived from 'Raute'. The Norwegian 'rute' may refer to a cell in a (data) table or in a square board for chess. Such a 'rute' is of course a square. Perhaps German 'Raute' has a similar possibility of being interpreted as square? Btw, the Norwegian for 'diamond', in the playing card sense, is 'ruter'. The 'ruter' in the playing card sense, is easily associated with 'rute' - in other words: square. However, we see that it is not a square, in the "normal" sense. The modern German name for diamond cards, Karo, "geht auf lateinisch quadrum „Viereck, Quadrat“ zurück". <http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karo_(Farbe)> -- Leif Halvard Silli
