Dead letters in the English alphabet - photo

[mklotz]

The most interesting thing about the ampersand is how it got its name. This quote from the Wikipedia article on the ampersand describes it...

Traditionally in English, when spelling aloud, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A", "I", and, "O") was prefixed with the Latin expression per se ('by itself'), as in "per se A". It was also common practice to add the & sign at the end of the alphabet as if it were the 27th letter, pronounced as the Latin et or later in English as and. As a result, the recitation of the alphabet would end in "X, Y, Z, and per se and". This last phrase was routinely slurred to "ampersand" and the term had entered common English usage by 1837.