Sometimes it looks like a backward three with a vertical line through it. Other times, it resembles a treble clef on a sheet of music. It’s used by hundreds of local businesses, from S & B Cattle to Central Bank & Trust. And the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences not only contains it in its name but also has christened its magazine for it.
It’s the ampersand, otherwise known as &.
Now relegated mostly to business names, ampersand was once the 27th symbol in our alphabet, according to Dictionary.com. Roman scribes made the first ones in the first century by combining the e and t when writing “et,” the Latin word for “and.” The ampersand evolved into a stand-in for “and,” and not only in Latin. Some early American schoolchildren learned to finish their ABCs with X,Y, Z, “and per se and,” which meant, literally, “and, by itself, and.”
That practice ended, but ampersands stayed on the margins. They’ve made a comeback in recent years as Twitter and other e-media demand more efficient communication.
In formal writing, however, ampersands should be employed judiciously, if not rarely. It is OK to use one in these cases:
• Official company names: A and W should be written A&W. Johnson & Johnson needs its ampersand. And who ever heard of AT and T?
• Addresses on envelopes: Mr. & Mr. Johnson, for example.
• Some academic references: While academic articles should never contain an ampersand in the regular text, APA Style requires ampersands when citing some parenthetical sources, for example (Johnson & Johnson, 2015).
• If space is extremely restricted: A report may contain graphs or charts that require a lot of text in a small space; in those cases, ampersands are permitted.
If you use an ampersand in a business communication, you will be understood. But beware: The reader also may suspect you of youth, inexperience & laziness.
Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar Gourmet, is executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (www.carnegiecenterlex.org) and author of “FatherLoss” and “VoiceMale.” The Carnegie Center offers writing classes and seminars for businesses and individuals. Contact Chethik at neil@carnegiecenterlex. org or 859-254-4175.