title: Is there any way to define custom special characters in HTML?
body: <p>W3 have defined symbols <code>&amp;mail;</code> and <code>&amp;telephone;</code> in a draft proposal.  I'd like to start using those now, even though they're not yet official.</p>
  
  <p>Is there some way I can define this; e.g. <code>&amp;telephone; = &amp;#x260e;</code>?</p>
  
  <p>My guess it it's not possible, and it's not really much of an issue - just curious as being able to create such custom character mappings could be interesting.</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-wwwicn.html">http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-wwwicn.html</a></p>