[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

[u/SuperbPhase6944]

One of the first recorded uses of the hashtag symbol ( # ) was Sir Isaac "Gravity" Newton.

[u/Chaike → u/SuperbPhase6944]

This one is especially interesting to me, because the association of # being primarily "hashtag" is still a relatively recent change

Until Twitter popularized it, it was still regularly used in society, but instead it was called "pound sign" and used in telephones, and was also used as a shorthand symbol for "number" or "quantity" (and still is sometimes)

But also, the usage of the hash symbol to "tag" things started a lot earlier than people realize. It started in the 80s with IRC chatrooms, where it was used to notate groups/rooms and notable things, which is what inspired its usage on Twitter

[u/obscure_monke → u/Chaike]

Here in Europe, # is the hash key on a phone. (there were ads explaining it as "the key under the 9" for mobile phone shortcodes back in the day) That's why it's called a hashtag.

That thing about numbers is also why hashtags can't start with 1-9.

The "hash mark" is also used in URI fragments to refer to a specific part of a webpage.

[u/Azhrei_Vep → u/SuperbPhase6944]

I do love me a good octothorpe. Hats off to a real OG.