The Ampersand at 2,000: Why Designers Still Can't Settle on a Single Look

Today marks World Ampersand Day, giving the design community a moment to honor what may be typography's most versatile character. The &, that familiar squiggle on your keyboard, has endured nearly 2,000 years of transformation. Yet despite its longevity, designers across the globe still cannot agree on how it ought to appear.

From Latin Letters to a Ligature

The ampersand began not as a symbol but as a practical solution to writing. It emerged from the Latin word et, which translates to "and." Roman scribes started merging the letters E and T into a single connected form—a ligature. One of the oldest known instances was etched into the walls of Pompeii, preserved when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

Through the centuries, that basic et underwent endless variation. Designers twisted, curled and embellished it until it became the character we know today. The catch: there is no single definitive ampersand. Load a dozen typefaces and you will encounter a dozen distinct interpretations. Some preserve traces of the original E and T. Others morph into shapes resembling an 8, a knot, a treble clef, or the kind of doodle someone sketches while feigning attention in a meeting.

The Accidental Birth of a Word

The name itself has an equally curious origin. The & once held a place in English instruction as the 27th letter of the alphabet, appearing after Z. Teachers faced a problem: saying simply "and" would create confusion in the recitation. So students concluded their alphabet with the phrase "and per se and"—meaning "& by itself means and."

Spoken rapidly, "and per se and" blurs into a single word. That linguistic accident gave us ampersand. A character most people access by pressing Shift + 7 thus carries within its name the echo of schoolchildren, centuries of typographic invention, and Roman graffiti. The holiday itself is far younger: designer and typographer Chaz DeSimone established World Ampersand Day in 2015 as part of his AmperArt initiative.

Two thousand years later, designers continue crafting fresh versions of the symbol. Apparently, the simple word "and" has never quite sufficed.