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French Word of the Day: Esperluette

Why do I need to know Esperluette? Because it's the French for a very common symbol in language that isn't l'arobase* . What does it mean? Esperluette – roughly pronounced ess-per-loo-ette – is the French word for the ampersand or 'and' symbol. It's also sometimes known as ' et commercial ', because so many businesses have it in their name. It describes the & symbol, which is a typographical combination of the letters E and T. The symbol dates back to Roman times - its first known use is on a papyrus from 45CE. In fact, the French for 'and' is taken from the Latin - et. Sadly, contrary to popular belief, ampersand was not named after the French physicist André-Marie Ampère. It is not 'Ampère's and', no matter how much we may want it to be. Advertisement The origins of the French word are harder to pin down. It could a corruption of the Occitan es per lo et (pronounced ess per loo ett) - which, in French becomes 'C'est pour le « et »' … or, 'it's for the 'and''. Similarly, it could come from Picardy, as a corruption of perluète - when the symbol & was more commonly included in the alphabet, after the letter Z. Interestingly, the symbol has evolved over the centuries. But the first recognisably modern form was developed by Claude Garamond - yes, that Garamond, of font fame - in the 15th century for use in printing presses. Use it like this Le 'et' entre le V et le B est une esperluette - the 'and' between the V and the B is an ampersand * If you've ever given out your email address in French you will know l'arobase (pronounced lar-oh-baz), it's the French for the @ symbol