Writing a seven with a bar through it

Everything else
1

For the longest time I would write the number seven with a bar (or cross) through it. I don’t know why.

Then I read an article somewhere (possibly Slate.com) that implied that there was something revolting and reprehensible about writing a seven with a bar through it. According to what was essentially a side note in the article, if you did this you were either completely ignorant or you were a cretin.

All I could find was that the “crossed seven” is more of a Eurpoean dealio but I don’t have any idea why it would generate such vitriol.

Anybody have any idea?

2

I’ve done it since the 3rd grade. I also cross my z’s. Makes things easier to read.

3

Because it’s a European thing and that’s not the way we do it in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

4

I’m a 7 crosser too… no idea why, or even when I started it - but I’ve been doing it for over 12 years… I haven’t even been to Europe yet.

5

I’ve always done that. But I grew up in Ireland and England, and that’s the way we were taught.

(I was recently given a copy of that brain training game for my DS and have been having an awful time trying to not cross my sevens, as it makes the machine angry.)

6

I was never taught it here, but I’m a messy writer so I adopted it a few years back to make the 1s and 7s distinct.

7

I cross my zero’s now.

8

Ya, me too. And man, do I hate the arguements made that having good handwriting and being able to type are signs of superior intelligence/ability.

9

I do it, but I was never taught to. I was having a problem distinguishing my 7s from my 1s, and my zs were too rounded, so I started doing it with both. I have no idea why anyone would argue that it is crass. I don’t cross my zeroes, but I can see why someone would, at least in some cases. Did the article explain the problem?

10

I never crossed my 7s when I was younger, but I think in the last 3 years or so, I began to do so. I can’t really say why I started, but I certainly don’t think it has to do with sloppy handwriting since I’ve always been pretty meticulous about it (although in recent years, it has degraded a bit).

I think those who try to judge someone by how they write come off as “assholeish”, though I admit I’m guilty of doing so on a few occasions when I was younger too.

11

That depends on what you mean by “how they write”. If, for example, I judged you because of your grammatical slip in that sentence (someone/they), then yeah, it would be pretty silly. But if you wrote in this forum using the typical web: “ne 1 want this? u can have it” then I think you are rightfully subject to persecution.

12

yah rly dem’s some ho shit

13

I cross my 7’s, because I was taught to in grade school here in the US of A. The rationale I was given at the time was that by so doing, you prevented someone from altering your number to an “8”, so as to prevent them from, say, engaging in funny business on a check or something.

14

I may start crossing my sevens, to increase my affectation of Europeaness.

15

I don’t get that, because you can just as easily turn a crossed 7 into an 8 as an uncrossed one, since an 8 has a line across the middle anyway, right? I always heard it was to keep 7’s and 1’s distinct, as people said above.

16

Indeed we learned to put an extra stroke on the 1 and cross the 7 so as to make them distinct.

17

‘They’ can be used as an indefinite singular pronoun.

Perhaps not in America, which has it’s own grammatical quirks, but in Ireland and England (where the bulk of my education was administered) it was taught and encouraged. It’s also used in Canada, and since Soldats lists ‘Quebec’ under ‘location’ I assume that’s where they picked it up :p

It is so much cleaner than that dreadful he/she business people get tangled up in.

18

You were taught to use “they” as a singular pronoun? How do you feel about this:

“If someone does enough acid they is considered legally insane”

19

I picked up the habit in highschool taking a course in “Data Processing” when handwriting keypunch sheets required putting slashes through zeros distinguish to distinguish them from ohs, slashes through sevens to distinguish them from ones, and putting slashes through zeds distinguishes them from twos.

20

If I forget that I’m in the US and stroke my 1’s, I then have to cross my 7’s. In Turkey, you must always cross a handwritten 7.