♂ is a common symbol used to represent the male sex or the male gender. It can be represented on a computer screen using hexadecimal #9794 and unicode U+2642. The symbol was originally used in Roman times to represent the war god Mars. It is derived from the Greek name for the planet Mars, Thouros. In Greek, Thouros was abbreviated θρ, which over time evolved in handwriting into the ♂ symbol we recognize today. The symbol was first used to represent the male sex by Carl Linnaeus in 1751. During the Renaissance, this symbol was also used to represent iron as part of the "science" of alchemy.