etymology of octothorp(e)

[eub]

I had only ever heard the Bell Labs story, but apparently a Robert Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style says that "In cartography, it is also a symbol for village: eight fields round a central square, and this is the source of its name." That page quoting him also says it's "the printer's traditional name". This etymology is all over the web, but I had no idea; I think these are largely-disjoint subcultures.

I assume that it is a cartographic symbol for a village, even an abstraction of fields. I wonder if perhaps the cartographic symbol had no name, but telephony came up with "octothorpe" for the same symbol, and the eight-thorp analysis coincidentally fit. That would be cute. ("Thorp" does not currently mean a field, but in Middle English it could, so we can go with that.)

The Bell Labs story dates the word to the early 60s. If it's traditional in printing or in cartography, it should occur earlier than that somewhere, so this shouldn't be too hard to answer. Pity Google doesn't do all past history yet.

Comments

[bk1e.livejournal.com]

And then there's this:

"[Alteration (influenced by octo-), of earlier octalthorpe, the pound key probably humorous blend of octal, an eight-point pin used in electronic connections (from the eight points of the symbol), and the name of Oglethorpe, James Edward.]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition"

That seems to allude to a different version of the Bell Labs story, substituting the olympic athlete for the founder of Georgia. Not that it makes any sense at all.

[eub.livejournal.com]

There's also some that say "+ thorpe, of unknown origin". Which is safe.