Calculator spelling

Method of writing text on seven segment displays
O I or l Z E h S g L B GInverted calculator digitsand their letter equivalents
Calculator spelling is an unintended characteristic of the seven segment display traditionally used by calculators, in which, when read upside down, the digits resemble letters of the Latin alphabet. Each digit may be mapped to one or more letters, creating a limited but functional subset of the alphabet, sometimes referred to as beghilos (or beghilosz).

Aside from novelty and amusement, calculator spelling has limited utility. The popularity of pagers in the 1990s gave rise to a form of leetspeak called "pager speak." Students, in particular, experimented with calculators to discover new words.

The "original" attributed example of calculator spelling, which dates from the 1970s, is 5318008, which when turned over spells "BOOBIES". Another early example of calculator spelling offered the sequence 0.7734, which becomes "hello", or could also be written as 0.1134. The 1979 album Five Three One Double Seven O Four by The Hollies encodes the band's name in calculator spelling ("hOLLIES"). Other words possible with the traditional "BEghILOSZ" set include "loose", "shell", "BEIgE", "gOBBLE", "gOOgLE", and many others. Among the longest are "hILLBILLIES" and "SLEIghBELLS" at 11, "gLOSSOLOgIES" and "BIBLIOLOgIES" at 12 letters, and "hEEBEEgEEBEES" at 13 letters, although the latter is not listed under that spelling in the Oxford Dictionary. Fittingly, glossology is the scientific study of language and linguistics. Another common case, 7734206, spells "gO 2 hELL". 8008 is special in that it can spell "BOOB" upside down or right side up. 71077345 spells "SHELLOIL". There are also a couple of names that are able to be calculator spelled. For example, 7718=BILL, 46137=LEIgh, 5107=LOIS, 31773=ELLIE, 31717173=ELI LILIE (in Polish: lily flowers of Elisabeth) and 302=ZOE.