Hash as a word can mean:1. a dish of chopped meat and vegetables sauteed together. 2. a mess or jumble. 3. reworking old material. There are also several variations of these meanings,but I think most of you are familiar with the word. Unfortunately it is now combined with the word tag to make for an annoying,overused feature of social networking. Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon can be seen on Youtube doing a routine showing what Twitter conversations sound like (complete with the hashtag hand signs!) and just how ridiculous it really is. The detail I found confusing when hashtag sprang into existence was I had always heard # referred to as number sign (from the 1900s teletype) or pound sign. Later on it was included on pencils in front of a number to indicate the type of lead (graphite) in that particular pencil,most test answer sheets or forms need a #2 pencil used on them in order to be read by a computer. Outside the US # is called the hash sign or key as to avoid confusion with the British currency (pound) but in American and Canadian English it is also called the pound sign,such as on telephone menus. Confused yet? It is also often confused with the musical symbol for a sharp,not to mention a comment sign in some computer programming languages. Another name for #,used by engineers is the octothorpe,which is offered in 4 different spellings. Stop me if I'm wrong,but for a symbol isn't it having a bit of an identity crisis? Exactly who or what are you calling a hashtag?!
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