Just what does the Command Symbol mean?
Have you ever wondered what Apple’s Command symbol actually means?
Well I haven’t…it’s just never crossed my mind. Today, however, I came across this article via digg, that answers that very question. The site refers to the symbol as Symbol 25:18, and also notes that in pre-Columbian America it was associated with another symbol that is the mirror image of the sauvastika
25:18 · In Germanic countries this structure is called St. Hans’ cross or the cross of St John. In Scandinavia it is a magic ideogram from the Viking era, or even older. It seems also to have been used in Cabbalistic mysticism. Today, it is used as a cartographic and traffic sign to denote ancient remains or an ancient monument.
Comments
Steve
August 30th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
It would be nice to find out what the hell the option symbol is. Retarded arrow like thing.
Phil
August 30th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
it’s a “fork in the road” i’d guess, meaning you have an OPTION on what to do. quite simple… just guessing tho.
as for the command icon, they introduced that because in the first (pre-release) versions of mac os, instead of that symbol there was actually an apple icon in all those dropdown menus of each program, until the steve decided that it’s too much apples on the screen. so they needed a replacement. true story!
why the hell they went and picked this icon specifically, i can’t remember.
Pierre
August 31st, 2007 at 1:45 am
Not quite ….
This is the origin of the apple command symbol:
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Swedish_Campground.txt&characters=Susan%20Kare&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=medium
have a good day,
Pierre.
Niclet
August 31st, 2007 at 8:03 am
Thanks Pierre, the link was very instructive. Now we also understand why Apple take off the (obsolete) apple logo on the Command key with the new iMac and keyboard aluminum line.
Alo
September 4th, 2007 at 4:46 am
Recently i’ve been to Finland and i saw that symbol everywhere, now I know the reason. Thanks!
Kris Watson
July 8th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
does anyone know what the § symbol means?