A History of the @ Sign

[Salome]

We found this on a section of the Hewlett Packard website and have no idea who wrote it or where it came from, so we cannot credit the author. We also have no idea why anyone at HP is writing about @ signs instead of making better printers. But the topic was interesting, so why not…

A History of the @ Sign

Let’s go back to the 6th or 7th century. Latin scribes tried to save a little effort by shortening the Latin word ad (at, to, or toward) by stretching the upstroke of “d” and curving it over the “a”.

Italian researchers unearthed 14th-century documents, where the @ sign represented a measure of quantity. The symbol also appeared in a 15th-century Latin-Spanish dictionary, defined as a gauge of weight, and soon after—according to ancient letters—was referenced as an amphora, a standard-sized clay vessel used to carry wine and grain.

Over the next few hundred years our plucky @ sign was used in trade to mean “at the price of” before resting on the first Underwood typewriter keyboard in 1885, then later rubbing symbolic shoulders with QWERTY on modern keyboards in the 1940s.

And then….

Then, one day in late 1971, computer engineer Ray Tomlinson grappled with how to properly address what would be history’s very first e-mail. After 30 seconds of intense thought, he decided to separate the name of his intended recipient and their location by using the “@” symbol. He needed something that wouldn’t appear in anyone’s name, and settled on the ubiquitous symbol, with the added bonus of the character representing the word “at,” as in, hey_you@wherever_you_happen_to_work.com.

And while in the English language, we know it as the “at symbol,” it goes by many other unusual pseudonyms throughout the world.

* In South Africa, it means “monkey’s tail”
* In Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia it’s the “Crazy”
* In the Czech Republic, it’s “pickled herring”
* The Danish refer to it as “alpha-sign,” “elephant’s trunk,” or “pig’s tail.”
* The French often refer to it as “little snail.”
* In Greece, it’s “little duck.”
* In Hungary, it’s called “maggot”
* In Mandarin Chinese, it’s the “mouse sign.”
* The Poles say “little cat” or “pig’s ear.”
* Russians often refer to it as “little dog.”
* There’s no official word for it in Thailand, but “wiggling worm-like character.”
* The Turks lovingly describe it as “ear.”

Quelle: http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3148


Und jetzt kommt miss smilla mit ihrer ganz persönlichen "@-Anekdote"...

[Rudi Ratlos]

Danke, Salome! Das war wirklich mal eine interessante Zusammenfassung zu diesem höchst bedeutsamen Thema. Nur der Vollständigkeit halber:

* In South Africa, it means “monkey’s tail”
* In Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia it’s the “Crazy”
* In the Czech Republic, it’s “pickled herring”
* The Danish refer to it as “alpha-sign,” “elephant’s trunk,” or “pig’s tail.”
* The French often refer to it as “little snail.”
* In Greece, it’s “little duck.”
* In Hungary, it’s called “maggot”
* In Mandarin Chinese, it’s the “mouse sign.”
* The Poles say “little cat” or “pig’s ear.”
* Russians often refer to it as “little dog.”
* There’s no official word for it in Thailand, but “wiggling worm-like character.”
* The Turks lovingly describe it as “ear.”

# Swedish:
Alfaslang = alpha-hose *
krullalfa = curled alpha *
apöra = monkey's ear
elefantöra = elephant's ear
kanelbulle = cinnamon bun
snabel-a = trunk a ("official" in Sweden)

# Danish (thanks to Peter Lemmich):
snabel-a = see above
People well versed in computer talk just say "at".

# Russian:
Sobachka = small dog

# Czech:
zavínác = roll mops

# Dutch:
Apestaartje = small monkey-tail

# German:
Klammeraffe = falling (or tripping) monkey
Affenschwanz = monkey's tail (thanks to mr Mira Grubic in Switzerland)
Most people just say "at".

# Yiddish (from Alon in Israel):
Shtrodel = kind of pie

# Hungarian:
Kukac = maggot

# Romanian (from mr Cristian Bogdan cristi@nada.kth.se):
Coada de maimuta = monkey's tail

# (Latin American) Spanish (from Dr. Victor Amaya):
Arroba = 25 lbs (ie, a measure of weight)

# Chinese (Taiwan) (from Robert Matthews):
In the tonal spelling system (Gwoyeu Luomaatzyh):
Sheau laoshuu = small mouse
In Pinyin spelling:
Xiao laoshu

# Greek: (Contributed by Katerina Karabela)
Papi = small duck

# French:
Escargot = snail **

# Italian:
Chiocciola = snail **
(A contributor has mailed me and corrected the spelling,
which should now be correct, and furthermore told me that it's
more usual to call it "chiocciolina", meaning little snail.
He also told me that "at" is common among skilled people.)

# Korean:
Gol-baeng-i = A shell (similar to snail, but lives under water). Dal-phaeng-i = snail **
(Geun-ho Kim mailed me about this. According to him, "Gol-baeng-i" is the most commonly used word.)

(Quelle: http://www.f.kth.se/~f96-lla/@.html)