

Ask HN: Why is ⌥  the option key symbol? - wcdolphin

As far as I can tell, the last time Apple manufactured a keyboard with this symbol on it was 2007 with the A1243. 
Does anyone know why this is the symbol, and why Mac OSX consistently shows a symbol which appears nowhere on any of their (recent) keyboards?
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sold
Speculation: it comes from the symbol of (electric) changeover switches: the
user can choose whether current goes up or down.

Source: [http://www.quora.com/Computer-Keyboards/What-is-the-
origin-o...](http://www.quora.com/Computer-Keyboards/What-is-the-origin-of-
the-Macs-option-key-symbol-%E2%8C%A5)

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tptacek
It's a switch. I always thought it was one of the more elegant pictograms
Apple used.

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mchannon
Looks like the Apple Lisa had this symbol on its standard keyboard (sans the
word option), meaning it's been in use since at least the early 80's.

I would wager that this was the first use of the symbol to denote this
purpose.

Interestingly enough, the symbol hasn't been widely explicitly mentioned in
menus in Apple's OS until relatively recently (OS X). Option was always that
special easter egg of a key that half of Mac users still never used or
realized existed.

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goshakkk
My MacBook Air (2012) and Apple Wireless Keyboard do, in fact, have this
symbol right below the "alt" label so I wouldn't say they "appear nowhere on
any of Apple's recent keyboards."

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dfc
Somehow you ended up at AskHN instead of Ask Jeeves. Did you bother to search
for this before asking HN?

When I searched google the first link is:

[http://www.quora.com/Computer-Keyboards/What-is-the-
origin-o...](http://www.quora.com/Computer-Keyboards/What-is-the-origin-of-
the-Macs-option-key-symbol-%E2%8C%A5)

You can probably find some more links here:

[http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+the+origin+of+apple%27s+option+...](http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+the+origin+of+apple%27s+option+key)

~~~
gruseom
_Somehow you ended up at AskHN instead of Ask Jeeves. Did you bother to search
for this before asking HN?_

Please don't treat other people this way on HN. It's mean, and it corrodes the
site for all of us.

~~~
dfc
I have no problem admitting it was not the most polite response. Do you think
HN would be corroded by people flooding HN with AskHNs anytime they are
curious about something but can not be bothered to do the most cursory of
searches on their own? I do.

I typed the AskHN title verbatim into google and was presented with a number
of pages that explained the origin of the symbol.

~~~
tptacek
No, I don't think it would be corroded that way. I (briefly) enjoyed answering
his question. Whereas your response (briefly) made my blood pressure shoot up.

People frequently ask questions on HN that Google could "answer". When those
questions spark interesting conversations, they get voted up. Otherwise, they
fall off the front page.

A better thing to do than acknowledging that you were rude and then explaining
why you decided to do that would simply be to apologize.

