Also ampassy-, ampussy-, ampus-. Corruption of ‘and per se—and,’ the old way of spelling and naming the character &; i.e., ‘& by itself = and;’ found in various forms in almost all the dialect Glossaries. See A per se (under A IV 1) I per se, o per se, etc.
1814. Maryland Gaz., 10 Nov., 2/3. Thus ended the campaign of general Izard; (ampersand the soldiers call him, in allusion to his round-about march from Plattsburgh to Erie.)
1833. Boston Morn. Post, 31 Dec., 2/3. Our school friend Ampersand is made to cut a queer figure, cheek by jowl, with the word ‘Boston.’
1837. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 399. He has hardly learned what Ampersand means, afore they give him a horse.
1859. Geo. Eliot, Adam Bede, xxi. He thought it [Z] had only been put there to finish off th’ alphabet like, though ampusand would ha’ done as well.
1869. Punch, 17 April, 153/2.
| Of all the types in a printer’s hand, | |
| Commend me to the Amperzand, | |
| For he ’s the gentleman, (seems to me) | |
| Of the typographical companie. |
1881. Mrs. Parker, Oxf. Gl., ‘Amsiam, the sign &.’
1882. E. A. Freeman, in Longm. Mag., I. 95. ‘Ampussy and,’ that is, in full ‘and per se, and,’ is the name of the sign for the conjunction and, &, which used to be printed at the end of the alphabet.
