HISTORY OF THE PERCENT SIGN
The percent sign (%) is the symbol used to indicate a percentage (that the preceding number is divided by one hundred).
Related signs include the permille (per thousand) sign ‰ and the permyriad (per ten thousand) sign ‱ (also known as a basis point), which indicate that a number is divided by one thousand or ten thousand respectively. Higher proportions use parts-per notation.
Evolution
Prior to 1425 there is no evidence of a special symbol being used for percentage. The Italian term per cento, "for a hundred", was used as well as several different abbreviations (e.g. "per 100", "p 100", "p cento", etc.). Examples of this can be seen in the 1339 arithmetic text depicted below.The letter p with its shaft crossed by a horizontal or diagonal strike conventionally stood for per, por, par, or pur in Medieval and Renaissance paleography.
At some point a scribe of some sort used the abbreviation "pc" with a tiny loop or circle (depicting the ending -o used in Italian numeration for primo, secondo,etc.) This appears in some additional pages of a 1425 text which were probably added around 1435. This is shown below.
The "pc" with a loop eventually evolved into a horizontal fraction sign by 1650 and thereafter lost the "per".
In 1925 D.E. Smith wrote, "The solidus form (
) is modern.
) is modern.
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