The origin of the octothorpe is veiled in mystery. It is thought to boast noble Latin roots, although its use so promiscuous the meaning can change entirely upon the context, leaving its original purpose to be speculative. It was allegedly first used as the symbol we recognise today (#) in late, 14th century England as a shorthand successor to the traditional symbol for pounds (lbs). Also, it can be used as the number sign, to signify checkmate in chess, a stand-in for the musical sharp symbol and in programming languages, or indicates that the rest of the line is a comment only. Proofreaders prefer it to denote the insertion of a space: placed in the margin. It is also known as the crunch, hex, flash, grid, tic-tac-toe and most famously the hash-tag.
