The Origin of the Orbithorpe

Orbithorpe is the uncommon name for the “NO” or “DO NOT” symbol.” You are probably aware of the NO symbol in its most common usage as in:

No Smoking

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While the symbol has been used for some time as prohibitive signage, the etymology of the term orbithorpe is usually misrepresented and often misunderstood. It is commonly believed that the term orbithorpe originated around the turn of the 21^st century in the North Eastern section of the United States. Many linguists argue the specific date orbithorpe first appeared but most agree that its earliest use in written form dates back to circa 2005. Quite shockingly, this ubiquitous symbol had not been named and required definition.

There are a number of published theories regarding the genesis of the symbolic designation as a universal symbol for NO or DON’T and an equal quantity of theories on the subject of the descriptive term.

One such possibility

Four Fordham University researchers are generally credited with coining the term as homage to the octothorpe, a term first used by Don Macpherson of Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey. In a similar effort, a team of security experts, strategic planners, and statistical theorists met at Fordham during the summer of 2005 and struggled to find a term that properly signified the symbol used internationally to indicate the antithesis of an idea, yet had not been given an official name.

Looking for a way to indicate the similarity to the etymology of the octothorpe, but allude to the symbols obvious round shape, the Latin root Orb- was prefixed to the whimsical –thorpe. Thus, the orbithorpe was born. Jason Benedict, Director of Computer Services became the first member of the team to authoritatively use the term in daily communications and is considered the father of the orbithorpe.

In e-mail communications recovered during a standard review of web design meetings, requests for an orbithorpe to be placed on the University home page to assist in beginning the awareness and advertising campaign for an Anti-Spam initiative for the University is the first known written form of the word. Presumably, using orbithorpe to indicate the standard NO symbol had been used colloquially in the language labs for some time before being used in official communications.