​AMPERSAND (a corruption of the mixed English and Latin phrase, “and per se and,” of which there are many dialect forms, as “ampussyand,” or “amperseand”), the name of the sign 🙲 or &, which is a combination of the letters e, t, of the Lat. et= and. The sign is now usually called “short and.” In old-fashioned primers and nursery books the name and sign were always added at the end of the alphabet.