octotherp

Octotherp is an earlier name for the hashtag: # (TLS, of course, May 17, 2019)

See the eight free ends of the four strokes that make it up. Critics resisted Andreas Bernard who gives us this name in his book Das Dictat des Hashtags (2018), translated by Valentine A.Pakis as Theory of Hashtag. I looked it up online and got this:

octothorp(e) a versatile symbol with many names (among them hash mark, number sign, and pound sign), the octothorpe has become popularized as the go-to symbol for marking trending topics on Twitter and other social media. ... The octo- part almost certainly refers to the eight points on the symbol, but the -thorpe remains a mystery.

TLS (via OED) tells us that “thorp” is an eighth-century Old English or Old Norse word for village. I’ve had enough of this. I don’t even like hashtags, especially on T-shirts..