Infinity Symbol

The precise origin of the infinity symbol, , is unclear. One possibility is suggested by the name it is sometimes called—the lemniscate, from the Latin lemniscus, meaning “ribbon”.

John Wallis is usually credited with introducing as a symbol for infinity in 1655 in his De sectionibus conicis. One conjecture about why he chose this symbol is that he derived it from a Roman numeral for 1000 that was in turn derived from the Etruscan numeral for 1000, which looked somewhat like CIƆ and was sometimes used to mean “many.” Another conjecture is that he derived it from the Greek letter ω (omega), the last letter in the Greek alphabet.  Also, before typesetting machines were invented, ∞ was easily made in printing by typesetting an 8 type on its side.

The Egyptian Ouroborus represented both the existence of space adn time encapsulated by the unbounded realm of non-existence. In this regard it represents both wholeness as well as infinity as it forms the figure-eight symbol for infinity, as shown.