The Character "&,", and Meaning of "Parse"

This character, being different from any of the twenty-four letters, was placed at the end of the alphabet, and children, after repeating their letters, were taught to indicate this symbol as *and-per-se-and*. Instead of spelling the word *and*, as composed of three letters, it was denoted by a special symbol, which was "*and by itself, and*." Hence the corruption, an *ampussy and*. The word *parse* is also derived from the Latin *per se*. To *parse* a sentence is to take the words *per se*, and to explain their grammatical form and etymology.