The ampersand character & is a universal symbol representing the word and. Its design originated as a shorthand ligature, a fluid blending of the letters e and t from the Latin word et.
While the term ampersand was first documented in the XVIII century as a corruption of the phrase “and per se and,” the actual symbol has a much deeper history. Early physical evidence of the character has been discovered scrawled in the ruins of Pompeii, dating its usage to before 79 AD. Interestingly, this symbol was once so fundamental to language that et originally functioned as the 27th letter of the alphabet.
Enter your details to receive all trial fonts
We’ll send you a zipped file with all trial fonts, license agreement, and installation instructions.
