EDIT Tironian Sign Et This character is the Tironian character for the Latin »et« (and). It was developed about 2000 years ago as part of a system of shorthand writing created by Cicero\'s scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro. The character was used in the Old English language (Anglo-Saxon) approximately between the years 450 and 1150. It can also be found in Gutenberg\'s Bible from 1454, in a Venetian edition by Jenson printed a few years later it was already replaced by an ampersand (U+0026).

Sources: Jan Tschichold: Formenwandlung der Et-Zeichen, Frankfurt am Main, 1953
Wikipedia: Altenglisch, Old English, Tironian notes
Gérard Blanchard: Nœuds & esperluettes, Actualité et pérennité d\\\'un signe, Cahiers GUTenberg, nº 22, september 1995

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EDIT Languages The Tironian Et is today only used in modern Gaelic and represents the irish word »agus« (and). The second Tironian character still in use, also in Gaelic, is the “z” of “viz” (short for videlicet). The character looks similar to a 3, the word is videlicet is a classical Latin word that\'s a synonym for »precisely« or »that is to say«.

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