A skull and crossbones is a symbol consisting of a human skull and two bones crossed together under the skull. It is generally used as a warning for something that is dangerous or deadly, usually poison.

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

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 Americans began using bright cobalt blue bottles with a variety of raised bumps and designs to indicate poison, but by the 1880s the skull and cross bones had become ubiquitous, and the brightly coloured bottles lost their association.

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.

In Unicode, the "skull and crossbones" symbol is U+2620. The HTML entity is ☠.

See also

• Totenkopf — "Death's Head" insignia of former German elite military units.
• Mr. Yuk

External links

• A variety of pirate flags
• Promoting skull and crossbones on poisons