different between draught vs octothorpe

English

Etymology

From Middle English draught, from Old English dreaht, *dræht (related to dragan (“to draw, drag”)), from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz, noun form of *dragan?; equivalent to draw +? -t.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d???ft/

  Rhymes: -??ft

• (US) IPA^(key): /d?æft/

  Rhymes: -æft

• Homophone: draft

Noun

draught (countable and uncountable, plural draughts)

1. (British spelling) Alternative form of draft in its various senses.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke V:

     […] he sayde vnto Simon: Cary vs into the depe, and lett slippe thy nett to make a draught.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 36:

     “Drink and pass!” he cried, handing the heavy charged flagon to the nearest seaman. “The crew alone now drink. Round with it, round! Short draughts—long swallows, men; ’tis hot as Satan’s hoof.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 35:

     Finally I gave him a draught, and he sank into uneasy slumber.

   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter iii:

     Much as I wish that I had not to write this chapter, I know that I shall have to swallow many such bitter draughts in the course of this narrative. And I cannot do otherwise, if I claim to be a worshipper of Truth. […]

2. (Britain) A checker: a game piece used in the game of draughts.
3. (Australia) Ale: a type of beer brewed using top-fermenting yeast.
4. (Britain, medicine, obsolete) A mild vesicatory.
5. (obsolete) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew XV:

     Then sayde Jesus: are ye yett withoute understondinge? perceave ye not, that whatsoever goeth in at the mouth, descendeth doune into the bely, and ys cast out into the draught?
6. (Britain, obsolete) Any picture or drawing.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.22:

     And therefore, for the whole process, and full representation, there must be more than one draught; the one representing him in station, the other in session, another in genuflexion.

7. (Britain, obsolete) A sudden attack upon an enemy.

   • drawing sudden draughts upon the enemy when he looketh not for you

Synonyms

• (outhouse): draught-house; see also Thesaurus:bathroom
• (game piece): checker (used in checkers)

Derived terms

Related terms

• draw

Translations

Verb

draught (third-person singular simple present draughts, present participle draughting, simple past and past participle draughted)

1. (Britain) Alternative spelling of draft

References

• draught in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913..

Middle English

Alternative forms

• draucht, drauht, draght, draht

Etymology

From Old English dreaht, *dræht (related to dragan (“to draw, drag”)), from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz, equivalent to drawen +? -t.

Noun

draught (plural draughtes)

1. draught

Descendants

• English: draught
• Scots: draucht
• Yola: draught

References

• “draught, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Yola

Alternative forms

• draft

Etymology

From Middle English draught, from Old English dreaht, *dræht (related to dragan (“to draw, drag”)), from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz

Noun

draught

1. A drawing stroke with a weapon.

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN

English

Alternative forms

• octothorp

Etymology

Origin disputed. There is no known usage before it was adopted by Bell Labs in the late 1960s or early 1970s, so most sources agree it was coined by someone at Bell Labs, but accounts from Bell Labs personnel conflict on the details. The derivation as a traditional term from octo- (“eight”) and thorpe (“field, hamlet or small village”) lacks any evidence, but there is near universal agreement that the first element refers to the number eight. Eight is derived from the number of ends of the lines. Thorpe could be reference to Jim Thorpe, as one proponent was a fan of the athlete.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??kt?????p/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???kto?????p/

Noun

octothorpe (plural octothorpes)

1. (chiefly US, typography) The hash or square symbol (#), used mainly in telephony and computing.
   • 1973, U.S patent application ser. no. 05/422,816 (filed Dec. 3 1973), issued as patent no. 3,920,926 (Nov. 18, 1975), Telephone Data Set Including Visual Display Means, col. 3 (first published use of the word)

     ...the octothorp (#) key generates a command to send the contents of the memory unto the telephone line through a send circuit...

   • 1982, Willard R. Espy, A Children's Almanac of Words at Play, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., page 230

     Octothorp is the # on a push-button telephone. Rumor at the telephone company is that a man named Charles B. Octothorp, wanting to make his name famous...

Synonyms

• hash, octothorn, pound sign, number sign, tic-tac-toe sign, noughts and crosses sign/symbol, sharp sign [music], hashtag

Translations

See also

• #
• sextile

References

Further reading

• Number sign on Wikipedia.Wikipedia