>...
>>>>And for the record, the technical term for the little pointy hat over the '6' on the keyboard, is "little pointy hat over the '6'".
>>>
>>Ok, if you want to get technical for real;
>>
>
>I don't know how my message got screwed up (well, yes I do - that old black magic called "Why the hell has overwrite mode come on again, as it often does when I'm editing a message?"), but:
>
>cumflex
>
>was supposed to be circumflex - ^
>>
>>We call it a caret
>
>No, it's circumflex. < or > are left- and right-caret, surely.

Check Webster's. We call it a 'caret'. We normally refer to > as the "greater than" sign, and < as the "less than" sign, but yes, I know ^ can also be referred to as a 'circumflex'. Here it's just waaaaaay more common to call it a 'caret'. I suppose it also depends on the use. A circumflex is used to clarify pronunciation or accent, or whatever. A caret is used to show an insert.

>...
>
>>>~ = "cedilla"
>>
>>We call it a tilde
>
>Yipes! you're absolutely right. That's what I meant but somehow got the French char, cedilla = ¸ mixed up in my head :-S
>>
>>># I think US call "pound sign" - we call it "hash"
>>
>>We call it the "pound sign" in Canada too.
>>
>>>£ = "pound sign" (not on US keyboards I think)
>>
>>It's a special character. Usually keyboard "ALT-0163"
>>