Ampersand (&) or And Sign | Definition

The ampersand word originated from the Latin word “ET” or “et”. Which literally means  “the character” or “By itself”. The “&” symbol is corrupted by “and per se” from the Latin words. The “ET” or “&” means itself in Latin and does it added to English alphabets as the 27th letter in 1834 and named Ampersand.

In old times it wasn’t known as the “Ampersand”. The letter was just a ligature of the cursive letters “E” and “T” forming the Latin word etc. That simply means the “and” (as you know why “etc” is sometimes written as “&c”). The ampersand or “&” is added to the English literature in the 19th century as the 27th letter that comes after the alphabet “Z”.

The “&” represents the ampersand symbol which comes from the Latin words. The ampersand is the formation of two Latin words “E” and “T” or etc.Which means in Latin “Itself”. The “and” is represent itself in the alphabet as 27 letters. In the 21 century, the ampersand symbol is commonly used to present two or more things in a paragraph.

Ampersand is used to represent the “and” in the list such as items’ names without separating them. For instance (Sky, Earth, Water & Wind with classic sound). There are lots of companies that used the “&” symbol on their brand name such as “AT&T”,  “A&W” and more

Well, the ampersand is an informal word. If the ampersand is officially used on the company name to represent it. Then you should use ampersand instead of writing the word “and”. For example, if you’re to the “AT&T”  company a letter then you should use an ampersand symbol.

The ampersand should be used in formal writing. But for some special cases like company names, it is used as part of the name of the company such as “A&W”, “AT&T”.