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Having a job where you write all the time means that you’re often dealing with all kinds of words and letters and punctuation. It’s enough to make your head feel like it’s spinning sometimes.

Thankfully, I like grammar and language!

I know plenty of others don’t share this same opinion. Which is totally fine, by the way. Some days English can seem like the most confusing language on the planet. Even I get confused on occasion and have to look up things just to check myself.

But also, there are some fun quirks baked into the English language. So this week, here are a few bits about grammar and wordplay that I thought were interesting, courtesy of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary website.

Have you ever wondered what the “&” symbol is called?

That particular piece of punctuation is an “ampersand.” Personally, every time I hear this word, I imagine opening up an electronic amp and watching a bunch of sand fall out, like it’s part of some old comedy routine about puns. That has nothing to do with the word itself, but it’s still funny to think about.

According to Merriam-Webster, the oldest record of “&” was actually in Pompeii. (You know, that old town in Italy that got demolished when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.) That ampersand symbol was actually created by combining the letters “e” and “t” together to form the word “et” (which was Latin for “and”).

But how did that punctuation come to be known as an “ampersand?”

During the Middle Ages, the Latin phrase “per se” (meaning “by itself”) was often used for clarifying when single letters were also used as words (such as “I” and “a”). So a person would say something like “I per se, I” to mean “I by itself is the word I.”

The & symbol got the same treatment: “& per se, and” was pronounced as “and per se and.”

As usual, the language changed over the years and eventually morphed into the easier-to-say “ampersand.”

Now that’s a bit of trivia you can share with friends and family the next time you have nothing else to talk about!

Speaking of punctuation, apostrophes can be used in a wide variety of ways in English. But they are particularly useful to create contractions (which is when you combine two words together but leave out some of the letters. A good example: “can’t” is the contraction for “cannot.”

Contractions are pretty common in our everyday lives. We’re not Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation after all. He would always take the time to say each word. You would not hear him say things like “isn’t” and “they’re.”

But did you know that you can also make contractions with more than two words?

That’s right! All you need to do is add some extra apostrophes and subtract the unnecessary letters.

Some fun examples: she’d’ve (she would have); wouldn’t’ve (would not have); y’all’ll’ve (you all will have), and y’all’dn’t’ve (you all would not have).

These were all very weird to type out, but I bet some of us have spoken some of these contractions before. They go well with our Southern dialect and accent!

One frustrating thing about English is that some words can have multiple meanings, so you have to be careful to make sure you’re using the word correctly.

But then there’s words like “biweekly” and “bimonthly” which both have two definitions that contradict themselves, often leading to some confusion.

Biweekly can mean “occurring every two weeks” and “occurring twice a week.” Bimonthly is the same, but for months.

So if I say “we’ll be meeting biweekly, so don’t miss the meetings,” you might want to seek some further clarification on whether I mean “I’ll be seeing you twice this week” or “I’ll be seeing you this week and then not again until the week after next.”

The confusing problem comes from the prefix “bi” which means both “occurring every two” and “occurring two times.”

Why is English like this??

Thankfully, we can use some alternatives. Saying “semiweekly” instead, for example, means “two times per week.” Or you can just plainly say “twice a week” or “every other month,” and do away with biweekly and bimonthly altogether.

On the bright side, when you’re talking about years, at least you have two different words available to use: biannual (“twice a year”) and biennial (“every two years”). Good luck trying to remember which one is which though!

And lastly, how about a word with two different but correct spellings?

One common example: the color between black and white can be spelled “gray” or “grey.” The first is more common in American English, while the other is favored in British English. The spelling variance is also seen in animal names too, with gray squirrel and grey squirrel both being acceptable.

But there are times when Americans prefer “grey” instead, such as the vodka brand Grey Goose or the TV show Grey’s Anatomy.

Essentially, the “a” and the “e” in gray/grey are interchangeable, and no one is going to worry too much if you use one version or the other. (Well, except for the “grammar police,” of course, but no one should listen to those people. As the English language has demonstrated over and over again, the rules are more like guidelines as long as you make your meaning clear.)

So, anyway, the next time you feel bamboozled by some strange English grammar or spelling or punctuation, spare a thought for the writers you know who have to deal with that all the time!

Holly Taylor is a Staff Writer for Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact her at holly.taylor@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7206.