E-mail has only been around for a few decades; but @ (the “at” sign) has been around for centuries.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF @
Some linguists say the @ sign first appeared in the Middle Ages, when monks used it to shorten the Latin word ad, which means “at, toward, or by.” Others claim that @ stood for a measurement of weight in Spain in the 1400s. The measurement was “a jar” of something, or an arroba. Yet another view says @ was used by market sellers in the 1700s to show how much something might cost. They put signs in front of their stands, like “5 POTATOES @ 10 PENCE.” Two hundred years later, that symbol of the marketplace made its way to the keyboard of the first Underwood typewriter. It was called the commercial “a.”
INTO THE DIGITAL AGE
When computer programmer Ray Tomlinson invented electronic mail in 1972, he had to come up with a system for addresses. He needed to find a character to separate the name of the user from the network domain. It could not be a symbol that might be used in spelling someone’s name.
Tomlinson studied the keyboard and found @. It was perfect: people would never spell their names with it, and it signified “at.” So his e-mail address could be, for example, Ray@home. In 1971 Ray sent his first electronic message—to himself.
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Nowadays, the only problem with @ is what to call it. In Spain, it’s still called arroba, a holdover from the jar measurement. The French use a modified version of that word: arobase. North Americans and the British call it the at sign. Translated into German, that’s at-Zichen. In Japanese, it’s atto maak.
Other people are more creative. They’ve come up with names describing what it looks like:
French |
petit escargot |
“little snail” |
Swedish |
kanelbulle |
“cinnamon bun” |
Danish |
snabel-a |
“the ‘a’ with the elephant’s trunk” |
Finnish |
miukumauku |
“sign of the meow” (for a curled-up sleeping cat) |
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MORE TXT TLK (for instant messaging)
6 |
Parent over shoulder |
66 |
They’re gone |
BAK |
Back at keyboard |
WB |
Welcome back |
EG |
Evil grin |
UKW |
You know who |
D |
The |
ATM |
At the moment |
GR8 |
Great |
B4 |
Before |
UW |
You wish |
BBS |
Be back soon |
GFY |
Good for you |
B4N |
Bye for now |
Slugs have four noses.