Octopus Card - Etymologies and Logo

Etymologies and Logo

The Cantonese name for the Octopus card, Baat Daaht Tùng (Chinese: 八達通), translates literally as "eight-arrived pass" (though in Chinese it was accepted as "go-everywhere pass"), where Baat Daaht may translate as "reaching everywhere". It was selected by the head of the MTR Corporation, the parent company of Octopus Cards Limited, in a naming competition held in 1996. The number eight refers to the cardinal and ordinal directions, and the four-character idiom sei tùng baat daaht (Chinese: 四通八達), a common expression loosely translated as "reachable in all directions". It is also considered a lucky number in Chinese culture, and the phrase baat daaht can possibly be associated with the similar-sounding faat daaht, which means "getting rich" (Chinese: 發達) in the local dialect.

The English name Octopus card was also selected from the naming competition, and coincides with the number eight in the Cantonese name, since an octopus has eight tentacles. It is also particularly appropriate since an octopus is able to grab many things at the same time and this ability is conferred to its cardholders who can use it in many different types of transactions.

The logo used on the card features a Möbius strip twisted sideways and into the shape of the Arabic numeral for the number eight, 8, to indicate the card's "infinite" possibilities. The "∞", looks like a sideways 8.