The Ampersand Is Nearly 2,000 Years Old — And Designers Still Can’t Agree How It Should Look

Today is World Ampersand Day, which means designers finally have an excuse to celebrate the hardest-working squiggle on the keyboard.

The & is so familiar that we barely notice it, but it’s actually one of typography’s great survivors. Its story stretches back almost 2,000 years — and after all that time, type designers still haven’t agreed on what the thing should look like.

It Started With Two Letters

The ampersand wasn’t originally a symbol at all. It evolved from the Latin word et, meaning “and.” Roman writers began joining the E and T together into a single character — what we’d now call a ligature. One of the earliest surviving examples was scratched into graffiti in Pompeii before Mount Vesuvius buried the city in 79 AD. 

Over the centuries, that simple et got twisted, curled and stylized until it became the & we recognize today. Except there isn’t really one ampersand.

Open a dozen fonts and you’ll find a dozen interpretations. Some clearly reveal the original E and T. Others resemble an 8, a knot, a treble clef or something you might doodle while pretending to pay attention during a meeting.

Wait, Why Is It Called an Ampersand?

This may be the best part. The & was once commonly taught after Z as a 27th character of the English alphabet. Because saying simply “and” would be confusing, schoolchildren ended their alphabet recital with “and per se and” — essentially, “& by itself means and.”

Say “and per se and” quickly enough and you’ll hear what happened.

Ampersand.

So we have Roman graffiti, centuries of typographic experimentation and generations of children accidentally inventing a word. Not bad for a character most of us reach by pressing Shift + 7.

World Ampersand Day itself is considerably younger: designer and typographer Chaz DeSimone created it in 2015 as an extension of his ampersand-focused AmperArt project. World Ampersand Day

Nearly two millennia later, designers are still drawing new versions. Apparently “and” was never quite enough…

Alex Harper

Alex Harper is a web designer and UX specialist with 8+ years of experience creating intuitive, user-friendly digital experiences. Known for blending creativity with functionality, Alex helps brands turn ideas into seamless designs that engage and inspire.