23 Jul
1998
23 Jul
'98
6:43 p.m.
On Thu, 23 Jul 1998, D. Peschel wrote:
I looked in my Webster's Collegiate dictionary which contains all the
obligatory swear words and racial slurs (so you know its compleat) and it
defines "thorp" (note, no 'e' in this dictionary's spelling) as a
village
or hamlet (archaic).
Annoyingly however, this dictionary has "cocksucker" (I swear!) but no
"octothorp" so I can't conclude my brief investigation.
The End
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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> The thing
actually has an official name, but I doubt many people still use
> it. Its an "octothorpe"!
You mean those little 'prongs' sticking
out on the four sides are
"thorpes"? How 'bout that! Learn something new every day. :)
No, the squares framed by the lines are "thorpes." The unmarked square is not
a thorpe.
1 | 2 | 3
---+-----+---
4 | | 5
---+-----+---
6 | 7 | 8
At least, that's the way I understand it. Apparently the symbol was used on
maps to denote small villages. Also apparently, the symbol depicts a village
surrounded by eight crop fields; this relates to the name ("octo" +
"thorpe" =
"eight" + "field"). I thought the word "thorpe" (as used
in English place-
names) referred to the village itself, but I could be wrong.