The letter ℘: name and origin? (2017)

One thing I've always struggled with Math is keeping track of symbols I don't know the name of yet.

Googling for "Math squiggle that looks like a cursive P" is not a very elegant or convenient way of learning new symbol names.

I wish every proof or equation came with a little table that gave the English pronunciation and some context for each symbol used.

It would make it a lot easier to look up tutorials & ask questions.

As somebody who spends a fair amount of time studying math heavy material that uses math that I never studied formally, this stuff is the bane of my existence. It's one thing to see a random Greek letter, where at least I very likely know what the character "is" (eg, "rho" or "psi" or whatever) and can at least pronounce it to myself and make a mental note "go back and see what rho stands for in this equation". But exactly like you say "squiggle that looks like a cursive P" doesn't easily admit a mental placeholder, AND it's hard to look up later to find out exactly what it is. I've really wanted to tear my last hair out over this a few times. And I am pretty sure one recent such occasion involved this exact character, so this really hits home!

And never mind that cognitive load that comes from managing the use of symbols that are the "same symbol" modulo something the typeface. Trying to read something like

"Little b equals Fraktur Bold Capital B divided by (q times Cursive Capital B) all over Gothic Italic B", blah, blah... then throw in the "weird little squiggle that looks kinda like a 'p' but not quite". It's insane.

I distinctly remember the first time a lecturer used the "dx/dt" "symbol" in normal algebraic operations (that is, multiply both equation sides by dt and so on). I was so shocked it's actually not a elaborate differentation symbol, but something with actual division. Next time it was similar with integration, where the dx was substituted by some other function of du.

I swear I treated those as some grammar token, which doesn't hold any real meaning. I've been using those as such for years before.