Japanese Uses Three Distinct Writing Systems Simultaneously

In Latin, 'trivium' (tri + via = three + road) referred to the junction where three roads met — a crossroads or small public square where people gathered to gossip and exchange minor information. From this, 'trivialis' came to mean 'commonplace, found everywhere'. In the medieval curriculum, 'trivium' also named the three foundational liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, and logic.

On a standard QWERTY keyboard, all 12 letters of 'stewardesses' (S-T-E-W-A-R-D-E-S-S-E-S) are located on the left side. This makes it the longest common English word typeable with the left hand alone. The longest right-hand-only word is 'lollipop' at 8 letters.

While English calls it the 'at sign', other languages gave it vivid nicknames: Italian and French call it 'snail' (chiocciola/escargot), Dutch and German say 'monkey tail' (aapstaart/Klammeraffe), Finnish and Swedish call it 'elephant trunk' (snabel-a), Russian uses 'dog' (sobaka), and Greek says 'little duck' (papaki).

The '#' symbol's formal name is 'octothorpe' — 'octo' referring to its 8 line endpoints. It is also known as 'hash', 'pound sign', and 'number sign'. Other languages have creative names for it: 'snail' in Italian, 'monkey tail' in Dutch, 'elephant trunk' in Finnish, and 'little duck' in Greek. Twitter popularized 'hashtag' after 2007.