Skull and crossbones
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A skull and crossbones is a symbol consisting of a human skull and two bones crossed together under the skull. Today, it is generally used as a warning of danger (usually in regard to poisonous substances).
The symbol, or some variation thereof, was also featured on the Jolly Roger, the traditional flag of European and American pirates. It is also used by the Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University. Poole Pirates Speedway Team in the United Kingdom have the Skull and Crossbones as their team badge.
History of the symbol
Actual skulls and bones were long used to mark the entrances to Spanish cemeteries (campo santos). The practice, dating back many centuries, led to the symbol eventually becoming associated with the concept of death. Some crucifixes feature a skull and crossbones beneath the corpus (the depiction of Jesus' body), in reference to a legend that the place of the crucifixion was also the burial place of Adam.
In 1829, New York State required the labeling of all containers of poisonous substances. The skull and crossbones symbol appears to have been used for that purpose since the 1850s. Previously a variety of motifs had been used, including the Danish "+ + +" and drawings of skeletons.
In the 1870s poison manufacturers around the world began using bright cobalt bottles with a variety of raised bumps and designs (to enable easy recognition in the dark) to indicate poison, but by the 1880s the skull and cross bones had become ubiquitous, and the brightly coloured bottles lost their association.
Modern uses
Today, the skull and crossbones is still the only standard symbol for poison. It is, however, less common outside industrial usage than it once was. Apart from its negative marketing effect on environmentally conscious consumers, it may actually attract children due to its association with pirates, a popular toy and play theme. For this reason, there has been a proposal to replace the skull and crossbones by the hopefully more meaningful "Mr. Yuk" symbol.
The skull and crossbones is also used by the British Army. The 17th Lancers adopted the skull and crossbones as its cap badge upon its creation in 1759, becoming known as the 'Death or Glory Boys'. The cap badge was later used by the 17th/21st Lancers and its present-day successor, the Queen's Royal Lancers who are still nicknamed the 'Death or Glory Boys'.
In Unicode, the "skull and crossbones" symbol is U+2620 (☠). The HTML entity is ☠. On the former MTV stunt reality show Jackass, the crossbones are replaced with "crossed crutches."
See also
- Chemical hazard symbol
- Jolly Roger
- Mr. Yuk
- Sedlec Ossuary — a church made of skeletons that uses the Skull and crossbones symbol at some places
- Totenkopf — "Dead (person)'s Head" insignia of former German elite military units.
External links
- ["Pirates"] — an overview of Pirate Flags
- ["Skull Symbol"] article about the use of similar symbols around the globe
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