& so on

When is it proper to substitute an ampersand (&) for the word and? Dan Santow of Word Wise provides these rules:

[T]hough an ampersand is the symbol form of the word “and,” it is not a substitute for the written-out word except in these very specific cases:

• where it is part of a company name (Abercrombie & Fitch)
• if space is very limited (such as in a small advertisement or headline)
• for artistic reasons (such as in a logo)
• in some computer languages (such as in JavaScript)
• in some academic references (Burke & Edison, 2002)

Other than for the reasons above, always write out the word “and.”

I would add that, for legal citations, check your Bluebook or ALWD manual.

Comments

[Adam Freedman]

On a tangential point - my usual sort - does anyone know where the ampersand symbol comes from? I suspect that it's a stylized version of the Latin "et" as in "et tu, Brutus?" But I'm not sure how I came to that conclusion. Thoughts?

[Ray Ward]

You’re right, Adam. Or at least so says the sometimes reliable Wikipedia. I notice that the ampersand in the headline to this post resembles an “Et”.