Looped square
Also called place of interest, command key, ⌘
A knot-form; a heritage sign; a keycap in 1984
Norse symbolsLooped square meaning
The looped square, ⌘, is a knot of four loops. Nordic countries use it to mark heritage sites and places of interest. Susan Kare chose the same mark for the Macintosh Command key in 1984, from a symbol dictionary, so the key would not be another Apple logo. The key is a reader of the sign.
A square with loops at the corners. A monument sign, then a key.
The name. Looped square describes the picture. In Scandinavia it is the mark of a cultural monument or place of interest, a use fixed in the twentieth century on a much older knot. Unicode calls the character PLACE OF INTEREST SIGN, U+2318. On a Macintosh it is the Command key, because Susan Kare chose it in 1984.
Where it comes from
The form is a Bowen knot, or Saint John’s arms: a continuous loop that makes four lobes. It is old as a knot in European ornament. In the Nordic countries it was standardized as a trail and heritage sign, a way to tell a visitor that a place is listed. Unicode encoded it under that job, PLACE OF INTEREST SIGN, not under the name of a computer. The computer use is 1984. Susan Kare, designing the Macintosh interface, needed a symbol for the menu-modifier key. A bitten apple would have collided with the logo. She looked through a book of symbols, found the looped square, and used it. She has told the story. The keycap made the knot famous in places that do not mark heritage sites with it. Fame ran backward: people now meet a Swedish sign and think of a keyboard. The keyboard is the later sentence. The lexicon draws the four-loop knot. It does not draw Apple’s interface file. The geometry is common. The bevels of a keycap are not the subject.
Norse
A sign for a listed place
On a rock or a stave church the mark says: this is a monument, pay attention, the state has written it down. It does not say that the knot is Viking. Viking-age art has interlaces of its own. This particular standardized sign is a modern heritage system using an older knot. The valknut page is where this cabinet refuses a false Viking label. The same refusal applies here. A looped square on a laptop is not a rune. A looped square on a trail post is not a rune either. It is a listing.
Modern
Chosen, not evolved
Kare’s choice is the opposite of a folk process. A designer had a constraint, a book, and a deadline. The constraint was to avoid the corporate logo on a key that would be pressed constantly. The book offered a mark already associated with “interesting place,” which is a quiet joke for a command that opens possibilities, and also simply a good shape at small size. Either reading is available. The date is not optional. 1984 is the key. The knot is older. The page exists so the key does not swallow the knot.
In fiction
product · 1984
A keycap taken from a symbol book
Macintosh (product, 1984)
The Macintosh shipped in 1984 with a Command key labeled by the looped square. Susan Kare has described finding it in a reference of international symbols. The product is a reader of a heritage sign, whether or not every user of the key has stood in front of a listed stave church. The reading stuck, because the key is under the thumb of anyone who uses the machine. A heritage post is seen on a walk. The key is seen every day. Daily use is how a second meaning becomes the meaning. This page keeps the first job in the title’s neighborhood: place of interest. The computer is the section you are in now.
Command keyIn popular culture
other · 1950s–
Nordic place-of-interest road sign
Official tourist-attraction sign in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; also used in the Baltics and Germany.
The reason Susan Kare found it in a symbol dictionary.
Sourceother · year unknown
Borgholm Castle
Kare was later told the sign was chosen because it looks like a square castle with round towers from above, notably Borgholm.
Kare was later told the sign was chosen because it looks like a square castle with round towers from above, notably Borgholm, a later reading.
SourceWorth knowing
Questions
What does the Looped square mean?
The looped square, ⌘, is a knot of four loops. Nordic countries use it to mark heritage sites and places of interest. Susan Kare chose the same mark for the Macintosh Command key in 1984, from a symbol dictionary, so the key would not be another Apple logo. The key is a reader of the sign.
How do I type the Looped square?
The character is ⌘ (U+2318).
Why does Macintosh use the looped square?
The Macintosh shipped in 1984 with a Command key labeled by the looped square. Susan Kare has described finding it in a reference of international symbols.
Near this
Sources
Named when the entry depends on a text, a date, or a standard. Catalog numbers are not invented.
Your margin
Private. It stays in this browser and never joins the canon.
symbol.wiki, edited as Sigilla. Last reviewed 20 October 2026. A reading of public tradition, not a ruling.