In her latest publication titled Because Internet, linguist Gretchen McCulloch offers a fascinating insight into the origins of the hashtag (#). Originally, the symbol was derived from the Latin abbreviation lb, which stood for libra pondo, meaning “pound by weight”. These early versions of the hashtag were initially associated with numerical values and were eventually incorporated into early Bell push-button telephones as symbols for specific functions during phone calls. As internet chatrooms gained popularity in the late twentieth century, the same symbol was utilized to filter images and content. Twitter user @chrismessina proposed using the pound sign to group related content on the platform, which was eventually embraced by users despite initial resistance from the site. The concept of hashtags quickly spread to other social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, becoming so ubiquitous that the term is now commonly used in everyday conversations.
