14 famous icons but few people understand the meaning (Part 1)

In everyday life, we can all encounter and use thousands of symbols in different situations. However, have you ever wondered about the origin of the icons? And are we using them properly?

The news page Bright Side decided to explore the two questions above. As a result, they deciphered the 14 famous symbols we use every day, but few know their true origin and meaning.

Sign &

The process of combining into the symbol &.

The & sign (called "ampersand" ) is used to represent the word "et" in Latin, which means the equivalent of the word "and" in Vietnamese. This notation was created by Tiro, the private secretary of Cicero, a famous philosopher of ancient Rome. To speed up the recording, Tiro created a system of abbreviations for himself and we often call them "Tironian Notes" .

Many years later, signs & became popular in Europe and America. This sign has the honor of being in the last place in the English alphabet and people only consider removing it at the beginning of the 20th century. The name "ampersand" of the symbol & actually stands for The phrase "And per se and" , is often spoken by teachers after reading a single A to Z English alphabet for students.

In addition, the writing of the ampersand is the combination of the letters "e" and "t" in the word "et" . You can view the integration process in your graphic to make it easier to visualize.

Heart symbol

Heart symbol that we often see.

Although people often believe that "love comes from the heart" but it is clear that the true shape of the heart has very little in common with the symbol we are using today. Currently, there are several different theories about the origin of this symbol:

1. When a swan meets a partner on the lake, they form a heart-like shape. In many cultures around the world, swans represent love, loyalty and commitment because this bird has a habit of pairing together for life.

There is a theory that the heart symbol was originally used to represent the female body.

1. Another theory is that the heart symbol was originally used to represent the female body . Proponents of this hypothesis claim that the heart symbol is intended to describe a woman's pelvic shape. Ancient Greeks are known to adore women's pelvis and buttocks. They even set up a special temple to worship the butt to give to Aphrodite, the goddess of desire of humans.
2. In addition, there is a theory that the heart symbol symbolizes ivy leaves . On the ancient vases found by Greeks, ivy leaves are often used to describe Dionysus, the god of wine creation and patron of passion.

Bluetooth icon

In the 10th century AD, the country of Denmark was ruled by King Harald Blatand, a famous historical figure because of the unification of the tribes in Denmark into a nation. King Harald is also known by the nickname "Bluetooth " (meaning blue teeth) because the hobby of eating blueberries has caused at least one of his teeth to turn green permanently.

The process of combining into Bluetooth notation.

Bluetooth technology was born in 1994 to connect multiple electronic devices to a single common network. The symbol of this technology is a combination of two Scandinavian ancient characters, "Hagall" , equivalent to the "H" in Latin and "Bjarkan", equivalent to the "B" in Latin. . These two ancient characters form the abbreviation of King Harald Blatand, who is nicknamed "Bluetooth" as mentioned above.

In addition, there is an interesting fact that the world's first Bluetooth device is blue and it looks like a tooth.

Medical icons

Medical icons today that we often see.

Many people do not know that the medical symbol we see today (a winged stick with two snakes crawling around) was born due to a mistake.

According to legend, the Greek god Hermes (equivalent to the Roman Mercury) possesses a magic stick called Caduceus and bears the shape of a medical symbol. The Caduceus goddess has the ability to prevent any dispute or confrontation, but it is obviously unrelated to medicine or medicine.

The simple fact is that more than 100 years ago, doctors in the US military mistaken the Caduceus stick with the god of Asclepius. Both god sticks look quite similar but the god god Asclepius has no wings and only one snake crawls around. Asclepius is known as the medicine god of the ancient Greeks.

This confusion has not been noticed and gradually becomes the medical symbol as we see it today.

"Power button" icon

The "Power button" icon can be found on many devices, but few know about its origin.

Engineers used binary to represent specific switches and power button icons from here.

In the early 1940s, engineers used binary to represent specific switches. Then, "1" means the on switch and "0" means the switch is off. In the following decades, the "power button" symbol has gradually become a combination of a circle (symbol for number 0) and a vertical (symbol for number 1) as we are seeing.

Peace symbol

The peace symbol was created in 1958 in protests against the use of nuclear weapons. This symbol is a combination of the words "N" and "D" , which stands for "Nuclear Disarmament" (ie disarmament) in the semaphore system (the form of signal transmission with flags Hand).

The peace symbol was created in 1958 to oppose nuclear weapons.

In the self-semaphore sample, the "N" is represented by two holding flags like the inverted V and the "D" is represented by holding a flag pointing straight up into the sky while the other flag points to the ground. Combined, we get the peace symbol.

OK icon

There is a theory that the symbol OK is simply to symbolize "buddhist".

Most people understand the OK icon as the hand gesture in the picture above means " OK " or "Okay" . However, this is not the place where this symbol is also positive. For example, in France, such a hand gesture means that you are implying that someone is nothing.

Currently, there are a number of hypotheses about the origin of the OK symbol:

1. Many people believe that the OK symbol stands for "Old Kinderhook, New York" , the birthplace of the 8th President of the United States, Martin Van Buren. During the election campaign, President Van Buren used the nickname "OK" , the first two letters of his homeland. At that time, the campaign slogan given by President Van Buren was "Old Kinderhook is OK" and the posters calling for him to vote all had an OK icon.
2. Another theory is that US President Andrew Jackson often uses this symbol when completing his decisions. President Jackson often writes "All correct" (all right) to "Oll korrect" (a sentence that has the same meaning in German) or is more concise than OK.
3. Finally, another hypothesis is that the symbol OK is simply to symbolize "buddhist" , a gesture in the ritual of Buddhism and Hinduism. "Buddha" is a gesture that shows the spirit of learning and many Buddhist literary works have described Buddha's ancestors so often.

14 famous symbols but few people understand the meaning (Part 2)