That's nothing compared to Shady Character's article on it[1] (if anything, this feels more like a summary of it).

[1] http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/06/the-ampersand-part-...

This is one of those stories that sounds suspiciously like urban legend bullshit, but upon further investigation, is actually true. Huh.

Most surprisingly, Italian borrowed the word "ampersand" as-is from English. German uses the more sensible "Et-Zeichen" ("et sign/character"), though.

In the Netherlands (Dutch language) we still use "per se" in our day to day speak which means, just like the article points out, "in itself".

I do not think I have ever seen it used with that meaning. I know it as "insistingly". Vandale.nl agrees with that.