different between tumbleweed vs octothorpe

English

Etymology

tumble +? weed

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t?mb?lwi?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t?mb?l?wid/
• Rhymes: -i?d

Noun

tumbleweed (countable and uncountable, plural tumbleweeds)

1. Any plant which habitually breaks away from its roots in the autumn, and is driven by the wind, as a light, rolling mass, over the fields and prairies; as witch grass, wild indigo, Amaranthus albus, etc.
2. (attributive) Describing unwanted silence and inactivity. Often used of a situation when one makes a statement that is ignored or ill-received by one's audience, as the resultant silence is likened to that of a desolate desert with rolling tumbleweeds.
3. A tan colour, like that of a tumbleweed.

Derived terms

• tumbleweed moment

Translations

Further reading

• tumbleweed on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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