The ampersand is the sign &. Just learned the reason for the ampersand’s name.
It stands for the Latin ‘et’, as in "et tu Brute"and “et cetera” (‘and the rest’). In the 17th century it was part of the alphabet, and was said after ‘w x y z’ as "and per se and ", per se meaning “stand alone”. This was corrupted into the word ‘ampersand’.
It sounds like one of those folk etymologies, but is apparently true.
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