Ask a Victorian schoolchild to recite the alphabet and they wouldn’t stop at Z. They’d keep going and finish with “&.” For a long time, the ampersand was treated as the 27th letter of the English alphabet, and that’s exactly how it got its odd name.

A Short History of the Ampersand

The ampersand is a ligature, a single character built from two letters joined together. Those letters are e and t, which spell et, the Latin word for “and.” Roman scribes writing quickly in cursive often ran the two letters together, and examples of these joined forms survive in ancient graffiti, including wall scratchings found at Pompeii. Over centuries, the combined shape got more stylized, until the “e” and “t” were no longer clearly visible.

A rival symbol existed too. Marcus Tullius Tiro, the secretary of the Roman statesman Cicero, is credited with developing a system of shorthand, and one of its signs, now called the Tironian et (⁊), also meant “and.” It looks like a numeral 7, and it survived for a long time in Irish and other Gaelic writing.

The name is much later. In 19th-century schools, children reciting the alphabet ended with the ampersand, and because it was a symbol, they described it as “and per se and,” meaning “and, by itself, ‘and.'” Said fast, “and per se and” slurred into “ampersand.” The symbol was removed from the alphabet taught in schools by the early 20th century, but the name stayed.

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Anatomy of an Ampersand

The ampersand is one of the most complex glyphs on the keyboard. Unlike most letters, it doesn’t have one standard structure, and many versions look quite different from each other.

The classic shape has a top loop, a small closed curve at the upper left. From the loop, a diagonal spine sweeps down to the right, crossing over a larger lower bowl that bulges out to the left. A tail extends from the lower right, flaring outward as a terminal. It’s often described as a loop sitting on top of a bowl, joined by a crossing stroke.

In some typefaces, especially italics, the ampersand clearly shows its Latin origin: you can pick out an “E” and a “t” side by side. These are known as “Et” ampersands. In others, the shape has been abstracted into a more fluid curve.

The glyph is made up of several strokes that cross or join, which means the weight has to be carefully managed. If the crossing point is too heavy, it forms a dark knot. If the curves are too thin, the shape can fall apart at small sizes.

Designing the Ampersand From Scratch

The ampersand is often the last glyph a designer finishes, and one of the first they use to show a typeface’s personality. It appears in logos, wedding invitations, and headlines, so it tends to get extra attention.

Designers have to decide first which version to draw. A traditional “Et” form feels classical and literary. A more abstract, looping form feels modern. A trefoil or other unusual structure feels playful. Many typefaces include several alternates so users can pick their favorite.

Construction is the main challenge. The glyph has to balance a smaller loop and a larger bowl, and the diagonal that connects them has to look natural rather than like two shapes glued together. The terminals, the endpoints of the strokes, need to match those used in other letters, such as “a,” “c,” “e,” and “g,” so the ampersand feels like part of the same family.

Sizing is the last step. The ampersand usually sits at cap height, but because it’s a wider, more complex shape, designers often make it slightly larger or heavier than a capital letter to hold its own in a line of text.

Unique Facts About the Ampersand

Several famous brands use it: AT&T, M&M’s, and Procter & Gamble all rely on the ampersand as a core part of their identity. Because it looks so distinctive, it’s a favorite among logo designers.

In the old Latin abbreviation “&c,” the symbol joins with a “c” to stand for et cetera, which is where “etc.” comes from.

In programming, the ampersand is a working character. Double ampersands (&&) mean “and” in many languages, and in HTML, an ampersand begins a code that represents special characters, which means that the ampersand itself has to be written as “&” to display properly. A symbol that means “and” is also the symbol that starts every character reference.

Typographers often call the italic Caslon and Baskerville ampersands some of the most beautiful ever made, and designers regularly include a decorative ampersand in a typeface specimen as a showpiece.

The Ampersand in Popular Fonts

In Garamond and other old-style serifs, the ampersand is graceful and calligraphic, with visible thick and thin strokes, and in the italic it often shows the “Et” shape. Helvetica uses a sturdy, simplified form with even strokes and a clean tail, matching its neutral character. Futura keeps the shape light and geometric, with a more open structure than traditional designs.

In script and handwriting fonts, the ampersand is usually written as a single loop, a quick curl that looks like it was drawn in one stroke, with plenty of flourish.

Summary

The ampersand started as a fast way to write the Latin word for “and,” picked up its name from a schoolroom recitation, and ended up as one of the most expressive glyphs a designer can draw. It has more structure than almost any other mark on the keyboard, and designers treat it as a place to show off.

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