The percent sign

Since then the ‘%’ has gone from strength to strength, and today we revel in a whole family of “per ————” signs, with ‘%’ joined by ‘‰’ (“per mille”, or per thousand) and ‘‱’ (per ten thousand). All very logical, on the face of it, and all based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the percent sign came to be. Nina and I can comfort ourselves that we are not the first people, and likely will not be the last, to have made the same mistake.

I love stories like this. The history of our punctuation marks and symbols is often quite fascinating.

6 Comments

  1. 2015-03-18 7:06 pm
    • 2015-03-18 7:58 pm
    • 2015-03-20 5:38 pm
  2. 2015-03-18 10:01 pm
    • 2015-03-19 12:51 am
  3. 2015-03-19 11:41 am