And, per se and?

At one time the last character in the alphabet, the often mispronounced (and seldom understood) ampersand has a unique and interesting history. First added as a word to dictionaries in 1837, the word was created as a slurred form of "and, per se and." It was originally a ligature of the letters E and T, as "et" is Latin for and, and has grown in popularity in recent times thanks to social media's desire for shorter, easier-to-repurpose Tweets and status updates. Learn more from the folks at Webdesigner Depot on the life and times of the ampersand.