Why is the word 'hash' associated with the '#' character?

The word "hash" is derived from the French "hache". hache, from Old French, past participle of hacher, hachier, to chop up, from hache, axe, of ... EnglishLanguage&UsageStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforlinguists,etymologists,andseriousEnglishlanguageenthusiasts.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Startcollaboratingandsharingorganizationalknowledge. CreateafreeTeam WhyTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. LearnmoreaboutTeams Whyistheword'hash'associatedwiththe'#'character?[duplicate] AskQuestion Asked 4years,6monthsago Modified 4years,6monthsago Viewed 1ktimes 0 Thisquestionalreadyhasanswershere: WhatIstheRealNameofthe#? (6answers) Whentopronounce#forpound,sharp,hashorhashtag?[duplicate] (2answers) Closed4yearsago. The'#'symbolhasmanynames,buthashistheonethatconfusesme.Iknowtheetymologyoftheword'hash',buthowdiditbecomeassociatedwiththatcharacter? etymology Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedMar24,2018at6:40 temporary_user_name askedMar24,2018at1:22 temporary_user_nametemporary_user_name 1,54011goldbadge1414silverbadges3232bronzebadges 16 #isusedinPerlforcomments.SodoesPythonandmanyothers.C++useseither//forlinesor/*thisisacomment*/forblocks.Nothingtodowithquestion,justsaying. – Zebrafish Mar24,2018at1:33 1 Theoctothorpe("#"character)iscommonlyreferredtoas"hash". – HotLicks Mar24,2018at1:33 (I'llnotethatthereareveryfewprogramminglanguagesthatspeak,soIcan'tvouchforwhattheymaycallit.) – HotLicks Mar24,2018at1:34 1 @HotLicksMycodetellsmetoburnthings.Seriously,isthissuchabadquestion?I'mcuriousalso. – Zebrafish Mar24,2018at1:36 1 @ZebrafishInCandC++the"#"characterisusedforpreprocessordirectives.However,inC#the"#"characterisnotused.Infactthe"#"inthenameisusedinplaceofthemusicalsharpcharactersincesofewpeoplewanttoentertheUnicodeforthat---includingAndersHejlsbergwhoco-inventedthelanguage. – m_a_s Mar24,2018at3:24  |  Show11morecomments 2Answers 2 Sortedby: Resettodefault Highestscore(default) Datemodified(newestfirst) Datecreated(oldestfirst) 4 Somyunderstandingisthatyouwanttoknowhowthis#symbolcametobegiventheword"hash". Theword"hash"isderivedfromtheFrench"hache". hache,fromOldFrench,pastparticipleofhacher,hachier,tochopup,fromhache,axe,ofGermanicorigin;seehatchet AmericanHeritageDictionary Sohowdoesthe#signrelatetocuttingorchoppingup? Hatching(hachureinFrench)isanartistictechniqueusedtocreatetonalorshadingeffectsbydrawing(orpaintingorscribing)closelyspacedparallellines. HatchingWikipediaarticle Exampleofhatching: Link There'saresemblancebetweenthisartistictechniqueand#,that'smyguessanyway. Additionalinfo: IntheUnitedKingdomandIreland,itisgenerallycalledahash (probablyultimatelyfrom"hatch",referringtocross-hatching, althoughtheexactderivationisdisputed).OriginandNamesof HashSign,Wikipedia "cross-hatching"heremeaningthearttechniqueImentionedbefore. Furthermore,fromablog: Severalonlinesourcesclaimthathashcamefrom"hatch",asinthe crosshatchingartistsusewhendrawing.Except,theonlyplaceIfind thisisintheseclaims.Theycitenoadditionalsources,andIhave foundnoadditionalsources.I'veonlyseenthisasajust-sostory presentedtofillthatvacuum.Link Andtoconfusethings,fromthatsameblog,isfoundthisfromagooglesearch: Sothere'salsothepossibilitythatit'ssonamedbecausetheolderversionusedtolooklikean'H'. FurthermorethehashsignWikipediaarticlesaysthatthe'#'symbolcouldcomefromasymboloriginallylookinglikethis℔meaningsometypeofpoundmeasure,andthatovertime: Ultimately,thesymbolwasreducedforclarityasanoverlayoftwo horizontalstrokes"="acrosstwoslash-likestrokes"//". Theoriginalsourceforthisclaimisthebook:TheAncientRootsofPunctuation Sothereyougo,manyexplanationsatoddswitheachother.Youreallyopenedacan. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedMar25,2018at18:38 Mari-LouA 86.5k8585goldbadges298298silverbadges560560bronzebadges answeredMar24,2018at6:50 ZebrafishZebrafish 12.3k44goldbadges3131silverbadges5858bronzebadges 15 "Youreallyopenedacan."--->Yeah,IcouldsortoftelljustfromwhatcameupwhenIwasgooglingit....arewe,like,breakingfreshgroundhereinetymologicalarchaeology?Aretherenodefinitivesourcesonthis?Goodanswerthough. – temporary_user_name Mar24,2018at7:35 @AerovistaeIdoubtmeremortalslikeusarebreakinganyground.Anyideayouhaveislikelytohavebeenhadbysomeoneelse,thereare7.5billionpeopleintheworldandover100billionpeoplewhohavelived.Thismakesmefeelsmall.Sorrydragdownthemood. – Zebrafish Mar24,2018at7:51 @Aerovistae-Therelationshipofthesymbol"hash"tochopped-upmeatissomethingthat'sintuitivelyobvioustoeventech-illiteratefolks.Youneverseeitexplainedbecauseithasn'tneededexplaining. – HotLicks Mar24,2018at12:15 @Mari-LouAIdistinctlyremembertheOPmentioningtheyknewthathashwasetymologicallyderivedfromFrenchhache.Ican'tfinditinthecommentssoit'spossibleitwasdeletedoreditedoutofthecomment.PrettysureIdidn'tdreamitup. – Zebrafish Mar24,2018at13:16 @Mari-LouAAlsotherewasanotheranswerwhichaddressedtheoriginofhashwithrespecttosocialmediahashtags.IassumethatquestionwasdeletedoncetheOPmadeitclearwhattheywereasking.That'swhenIwrotemyanswer.Though,itdoesn'tseemsoclearanymore,asIsaid,I'mnotsureifitwasadeletedoreditedcomment. – Zebrafish Mar24,2018at13:18  |  Show10morecomments 0 Thisishash(ofthenon-drugkind): Thefirststepinthepreparationofhashistoslicethecomponentmeatsandvegetablesintosmallcubes,oftenaccomplishedbysimplyslicingonedirection,thentheother,kindoflikethis: Thisslicingaction(literalorfigurative)isoftenreferredtoas"makingahash". Thisfigurativesensecanbeseeninthisquotefrom1798: theywere,inreality,nothingbutacrudehashoftyrannyand licentiousness Butnotethattheterm"hash"or"hashmark"hasbeenusedforacentury,atleast,torefertostripesonmilitaryuniforms,tomarkingsonasportsfield,ortothemarksonthetraditionaljailhousecalendar: Thetermmayalsobeusedby,e.g,acarpentertorefertoapencilmarkonaboard. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedMar25,2018at19:57 answeredMar24,2018at21:42 HotLicksHotLicks 26.9k33goldbadges5252silverbadges105105bronzebadges Addacomment  |  Nottheansweryou'relookingfor?Browseotherquestionstaggedetymologyoraskyourownquestion. FeaturedonMeta Inboximprovements:markingnotificationsasread/unread,andafiltered... BookmarkshaveevolvedintoSaves Linked 26 WhatIstheRealNameofthe#? 4 Whentopronounce#forpound,sharp,hashorhashtag? 10 Whatisathorpe? -2 Whatsymboliscalled'hash'inUSEnglish? 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