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Where
did the @ sign come from?
In
1972, Ray Tomlinson sent the first electronic message, now known
as e-mail, using
the @ symbol to indicate the location or institution of the e-mail
recipient. Tomlinson,
using a Model 33 Teletype device, understood that he needed to use
a symbol that
would not appear in anyone's name so that there was no confusion.
The logical choice for
Tomlinson was the "at sign," both because it was unlikely
to appear in anyone's name
and also because it represented the word "at," as in a
particular user is sitting
@ this specific computer.
However,
before the symbol became a standard key on typewriter keyboards
in the 1880s
and a standard on QWERTY keyboards in the 1940s, the @ sign had
a long if somewhat
sketchy history of use throughout the world. Linguists are divided
as to when the symbol
first appeared. Some argue that the symbol dates back to the 6th
or 7th centuries when
Latin scribes adapted the symbol from the Latin word ad, meaning
at, to or toward. The
scribes, in an attempt to simplify the amount of pen strokes they
were using, created
the ligature (combination of two or more letters) by exaggerating
the upstroke
of the letter "d" and curving it to the left over the
"a."
Other
linguists will argue that the @ sign is a more recent development,
appearing
sometime in the 18th century as a symbol used in commerce to indicate
price per unit, as
in 2 chickens @ 10 pence. While these theories are largely speculative,
in 2000 Giorgio
Stabile, a professor of the history of science at La Sapienza University
in Italy, discovered
some original 14th Century documents clearly marked with the @ sign
to indicate a
measure of quantity —
the amphora, meaning jar. The amphora was a standard-sized
terra cotta vessel used to carry wine and grain among merchants,
and, according to
Stabile, the use of the @ symbol (the upper-case "A" embellished
in the typical
Florentine script) in trade led to its contemporary meaning of "at
the price of."
While
in the English language, @ is referred to as the "at sign,"
other countries have different
names for the symbol that is now so commonly used in e-mail transmissions
throughout the
world. Many of these countries associate the symbol with either
food or animal names.
Afrikaans - In South Africa, it is called aapstert,
meaning "monkey's tail"
Arabic - The Arabic word for @ is fi, the Arabic
translation of at
Cantonese - In Hong Kong it is generally referred to
as "the at sign."
Catalan - In Catalonia, it is called arrova,
a unit of weight
Czech - In the Czech Republic, it is called zavinac,
meaning "rollmop," or "pickled herring"
Danish - It is called alfa-tegn, meaning "alpha-sign"
or grisehale, meaning "pig's tail"
Dutch - The Dutch say apestaart, "monkey's
tail," or slingeraap, "swinging monkey"
French - In France, it is called arobase the
symbol's name, and escargot, meaning "snail"
German - In Germany, it is called Affenschwanz,
meaning "monkey's tail"
Greek - In Greece, it is called papaki, meaning
"little duck"
Hebrew - It is shablul or shablool, meaning
"snail" or a shtrudl, meaning "strudel"
Hungarian - In Hungary, it is called a kukac, meaning
"worm" or "maggot"
Italian - In Italy it is called chiocciola,
meaning "snail"
Japanese - In Japan, it is called atto maaku,
meaning "at mark"
Mandarin Chinese - In China it is called xiao lao-shu,
meaning "little mouse"
Norwegian - In Norway, it is called grisehale,
"pig's tail" or kro/llalfa, "curly alpha."
Polish - In Poland, it is called malpa, meaning
"monkey," and kotek, meaning "little
cat"
Portuguese - In Portugal it is called arroba,
a unit of weight
Romanian - In Romania, it is called la, a direct
translation of English "at"
Russian - Russians usually call it sobachka,
meaning "little dog"
Spanish -- Like in Portugal, in Spain it is called
arroba, a unit of weight
Swedish - The official term in Sweden is snabel-a,
meaning "a with an elephant's trunk"
Thai - In Thai it is often called ai tua yiukyiu,
meaning "the wiggling worm-like character"
Turkish - In Turkey, most e-mailers call it kulak,
meaning "ear"
From
... PCWebopaedia.com
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