It is impossible to write an email message without an unusual sign like @. Everyone knows him under the funny name "dog" and he is on the same key as button 2.

Where did the dog icon come from?

Most people think the @ sign was invented by programmers. But this is far from the case. A similar symbol was used long before the very concept of electronic communications. It is believed that similar signs were used in writing by monks in the Middle Ages.

The dog sign appeared on the keyboard thanks to Tomlinson, who is better known as the creator of e-mail. A character was required that would not appear in any name and did not introduce confusion when writing email addresses. Today this sign has become so popular that it was even introduced into the Morse code.

This sign called "dog" is better known in post-Soviet countries. In the west, completely different names correspond to it. For example, in Italy - "snail", in Norway - "elephant", in America - "cat", in Germany - "monkey", in the Czech Republic - "herring in pickle", in Serbia - "crooked A". The inhabitants of the land of the rising sun approached this issue in the most original way. They called @ the "whirlpool".

Interesting! According to one of the versions, the name “dog” was assigned to the symbol on the keyboard because @ resembles this animal curled up in a ball. There are more interesting options though.

How do I write the @ sign?

This symbol is visible at a glance. But beginners often wonder how to write a dog on a computer keyboard, since nothing happens when you press it. The trick is that this character is only available with an English keyboard layout.

Therefore, to write @, you need to:

1. In order to understand how to make a dog on the keyboard, you first need to change the input language. To do this, on the "Taskbar", in the lower right corner, we find the sign that the Russian layout is on. This will be the "RU" symbol.
2. Click on this letter sign. A mini-list will appear where you need to select "EN".
3. We click on these letters.
4. After that, to press the dog on the keyboard, you need to use the combination of Shift and 2. The first is located at the bottom left, the second at the top.

All manipulations are very simple. The disadvantage is that if the user types in Russian, he will constantly have to change the input language, which is not very convenient.

Sign " @ "(Dog) on ​​the keyboard is mainly used for writing e-mail addresses. It also happens that this special character is used in various formulas and codes during programming. But programmers probably already know how to type a dog on the keyboard, but we do not. Therefore, now we will study this.

How to make a dog on the keyboard

First, make sure you are on the English keyboard layout. The icon at the bottom right of the screen will tell you about this. Depending on your desktop or operating system settings, it may be in other corners. It should look like this:

If you are in the Russian layout and instead of EN you have RU, then switch the language by simultaneously pressing the keys Shift+Alt or Shift+Ctrl... The working combination on each computer is different, but by clicking both, you will definitely change the language.

Now that we are in the right language, it's time to hit the dog on the keyboard. To do this, first place the mouse cursor where you want to print the dog, and click there with the mouse. A black vertical stripe will flash there - the cursor.

Now holding Shift, click 2 to write dog on the keyboard.

Where these keys are located on the keyboard is shown in the picture below.

Save the picture so you don't lose it! Right-click and then "Save Image As ..."

What to do if the dog is not typed and other symbols appear, for example «

This may mean that the language has not been switched, and you are still in the Russian layout. If not, the operating system has the wrong keyboard layout. It's okay, we'll fix it manually now. You no longer have to copy a symbol every time @ when typing an email address.

1. Click on the language indication on the desktop with the right mouse button, and click on the "Options" menu.

2. You will be taken to a menu that looks like the picture below. There you should have 2 keyboard languages ​​available: Russian (Russia) and English (USA). If this is not the case, then click "Add" and in the menu that appears, select the layout "English (US)." Then delete unnecessary layouts in which you did not have a dog.

What if the dog still cannot be typed?

Here is a dog, all the same dares not to recruit! Although the above method solves 99.9% of problems with a dog's recruitment, this also happens. But only in the most advanced cases.

There is another way to type a dog on the keyboard - turn on the numeric keypad on the right with the Num Lock key (the indicator light will turn on), and while holding the Alt key, type 64 on the numeric keypad. After that release Alt and a dog will appear on the screen.

The last way to type a dog on the keyboard is to call up the Windows special characters table and copy the character from there. You can also from our article, here it is: @ .

How to invoke the Windows special character table

To do this, go to the Start menu - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Symbol Table. Or just type in the search on the Start menu: "symbol table".

The symbol table (in the figure below) contains all the many symbols that can and cannot be typed from the keyboard. Including the dog, which is in the forefront.

Every Internet user has probably come across the dog icon because it is associated with e-mail. It is also now perceived as the closest association with the entire global Internet. They tried to give this symbol a simpler name, for example: "ear", "frog" and so on, in the 90s it was even called "bun", but, unfortunately, they did not succeed in gaining a foothold. In Russian, he was given the unspoken name of our four-legged friend, since he looks like this curled up animal. Here is one of the answers to the question why the badge was called "dog". In other countries, this symbol is also associated with various objects or animals, which is discussed further.

Dog icon in other countries

What is the name of this icon in other languages? Each nation has its own mentality and associations, so the names of the same "dog" icon are very different. Did you know that in the Netherlands this sign is accustomed to being called "a monkey's tail", in Israel - "strudel", and in Italy even "snail". In the countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula (Norway, Sweden and Denmark), the familiar "dog" is called "elephant trunk" or "pig's tail", but there is also a spare name - "twisted harp". In Hungary, they are unflatteringly called "worm" or "tick". The Greeks call him a "duck", America and Finland routinely call him "a cat", and in China and Taiwan, in contrast to the post-Soviet space, they call her "a little mouse", and in Turkey they even call him a "rose". The Japanese identify with the forces of nature and speak about this sign "whirlpool", the Kazakhs - "lunar echo". In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it is customary to call the sign "rollmops" (herring roll with marinade).

Esperanto language and postal symbol

Esperanto is an artificially created language that unites the whole world. It was invented by the Polish ophthalmologist Ludwik Zamenhof in 1887. The plans of its creator were to introduce this language for international communication, to make it the second after the native language for every inhabitant of the globe. So, in Esperanto this icon is called heliko - "snail".

The International Telecommunication Union introduced the @ (- - -) character in Morse code in 2004 to make it easier to use e-mail. Such a code contains the Latin characters A and C, graphically displayed together. Incidentally, this was the only major change to Morse code since World War II.

Origin and nature of the sign

It is still not known exactly where this symbol came from. The roots of his "pedigree" are lost in hoary antiquity, but still scientists insist that he appeared at least in the 15th century, and maybe even earlier. All linguists and paleographers are lost in conjecture and cannot establish one true version of the origin of this simple, uncomplicated icon. Here are some popular assumptions:

• The following version is very widespread in the world. The @ sign is said to have been invented by medieval monks. The first such letter "a" with a long curled tail was used by the Byzantine chronicler Constantine Manasseh in 1345 instead of the letter "a" in the word "Amen". But why this was done, scientists have not figured out.
• Also, many are sure that this badge was borrowed from merchants, since they had their own counting system, which looked like this: "1 meter of silk @" (fictional example) - this meant that 1 meter of silk was sold for $ 5. The advantage of such a record was in its versatility, so any transactions could be made without deep knowledge of the language and unnecessary words.
• Professor Giorgio Stabile found a reference in a 16th century document about "one A wine", possibly an amphora. Most likely, the letter A, according to the traditions of that time, was decorated with a curl and looked like something similar to our @ sign. This document dates back to 1536.

• The icon "dog" in English means the preposition at (on).
• Also, the American Berthold Ullman argued that this sign was invented by monks in the Middle Ages in order to shorten the Latin preposition ad, a kind of universal word that took the meaning of any preposition or union word (on, in, oh, about, to, on, in relation, because , also and so on). Such an easy trick helped to save ink and paper - luxury items that were very difficult to obtain in those days.
• The French, Spaniards and Portuguese with such an icon in the letter denoted "arroba" - a measure of weight, which is numerically approximately 15 kilograms.
• A similar sign in the 16-17th centuries was found even in Russian books. Specifically - on the title page of the Code of Law of Ivan the Terrible, which was published in 1550. It was the swirling Cyrillic capital letter az, which denoted the first item.

Additional versions

There is also such an interesting coincidence. In the 16th century, the messengers who were in charge of delivering mail used a mail horn. Previously, they were used by butchers to mark their arrival in some area to buy animals, but already in 1712 the horn was assigned only to postmen and was forbidden to be used by others. In Germany, horse mail was also equipped with horns. Even now, you can see such horns on various emblems and logos that are somehow connected with the mail. This horn and the @ sign are a bit similar.

Keyboard icon

The icon "dog" smoothly migrated from typewriters, as it was actively used in trade and related calculations, denoting various prepositions. The first model of the American Underwood typewriter was already equipped with the @ key in 1885.

Internet and "dog"

Internet users should thank programmer Tomlinson, the creator of email. But what does the "dog" icon on the World Wide Web mean? We needed a sign that would not appear in any of the first and last names to avoid confusion in the separation of the username and the email server, so that there would be no obstacles in the identification process. The well-known @ sign fell on everyone. Thus, the first email on the Arpanet network was called [email protected] and the "dog" icon on the keyboard has become one of the most requested symbols.

What is such a symbol for?

But why should any email address contain the @ sign? Is this a necessity or some other fashion trend?

The first option is correct. Let's figure out why.

The mail server in the login is the domain name. It is better to illustrate this with an example. You have an email address [email protected](completely random and fictitious login). In this case, humanpower is the username, and arpa.com is the domain name, the @ sign denotes the English preposition "at" and indicates the location of the login, that is, humanpower on arpa.com.

What happened before Tomlinson?

Before Ray Tomlinson, this icon was used only in the creation of programs in PHP ("dog" is used to prevent the display of errors, as well as warnings that may appear during program execution), Java (used to declare annotations), Perl (to define an array ) and Transact-SQL. If not for the creator of the mail, then this icon would not have been used so actively among ordinary Internet users.

In general, after its creation, the ARPANET did not gather many fans, they did not trust it and did not want to use it. But in 1977, there was a huge breakthrough in the history of the development of the World Wide Web - this network made it possible to send various letters around the world. It is thanks to Tomlinson that the long and slow sending of mail letters around the world has become extremely easy. It has become very easy to receive and send any files, documents and images in a matter of seconds.

Why "dog"?

There are many funny versions of why the icon is named "dog". Apart from the basic version mentioned at the beginning of the article, at sounds like a dog barking.

But they agree that this happened because of one of the first computer games "Adventure". It was a popular game from the eighties. And the essence of the game was to overcome the maze and reach the bowels, where the treasures were hidden. There was no graphics familiar to our eye, since all displays of that time were text. Even to indicate obstacles, simple signs (!, +, -, etc.) were used. The game had the main character and a dog - his assistant, which could be used for reconnaissance of the territory. It was precisely this that was denoted by the @ sign. But no one will tell you if the mark is named after a character or the character is named after a mark.

It will no longer be known exactly where this name came from, but nevertheless, this icon on the computer has firmly entered our lives.

How to enter the "dog" icon on the keyboard

Everyone knows that the @ sign on the keyboard is on the number 2 in the top row of numbers. But you just can't get it. You need to switch the keyboard layout from Russian to English. Then hold down the Shift button and simultaneously press the number 2. And you're done, send your letter!

Unlike complex operations with the "dog" icon on a computer, on phones and various pocket gadgets, this icon is available on the symbol keyboard and next to numbers and punctuation marks.

After talking about how to type the dog icon on the keyboard, you would probably be interested to know that it is used not only for the mailbox name. Namely:

At first, a cursory and uninterested glance, the discussion of a simple icon seems ridiculous and meaningless, but it is precisely these topics that should be of the greatest interest. After all, behind something ordinary there is a huge painstaking work or a long mysterious tangled story, as in our case. Here's how many interesting details were hidden in the little @ sign. We hope that our article broadened your horizons and you learned something new.

I think you have seen various symbols on the keyboard, especially on the keys next to the numbers. These are the following signs: *?:%; № " [email protected] etc. If you simply press a key with one of these characters, the desired character will not be printed. Why? Let's see why the symbols do not work and how to solve this problem. This is especially true of the Dog sign, as it has to be used often, for example, when writing an email address.

Why "dog"?

Many people wonder why the @ symbol is called "dog". In fact, in different countries it is called completely differently, but everything is just as strange. So, the @ sign got this name due to the fact that it resembles a curled dog, and the abrupt sound of "at" resembles a dog barking. It is interesting that in Israel the symbol "dog" is called strudel, in Turkey a rose.

How to print characters

1. In order to enter such characters as?! No. ", etc., you need to hold down the Shift key and hold it down and press the desired key.
2. If you want to put the sign "dog", and instead of it, you put quotation marks, then this indicates that you have enabled the Russian keyboard layout. In order to type the sign "dog" you need to switch the keyboard to English. If you do not know how to do this, then our article on how to switch the font on the keyboard will help you. All upper characters located on the buttons with numbers are entered when the English language is on with the Shift key pressed, and other characters are entered when the Russian language is on.
3. There are keys on the right side of the keyboard that work a little differently. This block with keys may not be present if you have a netbook. So, if the Num Lock key is on, then the characters are printed, if not, then you need to press this key and these characters are unlocked.
4. If you have tried all the methods, and the dog sign does not appear, then just copy it and paste it wherever you need.

Instructions

Change your computer to an English keyboard layout. To do this, press the Alt left + Shift key combination. You can also manually change the language. The current input language is highlighted on the panel in the lower right corner. Move the cursor over it, left-click and select EN - English from the pop-up menu.

If you do not find English in the menu, then you need to install it. Click Start> Control Panel> Regional and Language Options. In the window that opens, select the Language & Keyboard tab> Edit> Add. Click on the "+" next to "English (US)". Check the box next to "USA" (topmost row). Confirm your choice with the "OK" button.

Open the document in which you want to type the dog icon. After translating the keyboard into English, press and hold the Left Shift while pressing the number 2 key. The "@" icon will appear in the desired location.

You can also type this icon from the symbol table. To open it, run: Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Symbol Map. In the pop-up window on the panel, select the font in which you want to see the written icon. Click on "@", it should appear in the "To copy" window. Confirm your selection by clicking "Copy".

note

English is required for all keyboards, just not always set as one of the input languages. No other layout (German, French, Polish, etc.) has a "dog" symbol.

Sources:

• Education. How to put a dog sign and other symbols
• how to recruit workers

Tip 2: How the @ symbol came to be, and why we call it dog

There are several versions of the origin of this word. The first and most commonplace - the badge, in fact, looks like a curled up into a ball. The second is that the sound of English at is a bit like the intermittent barking of a dog. According to another version, in the @ sign you can see all the letters that enter the "dog". There is also a romantic version, according to which, the name "doggy" migrated from the old computer game Adventure. The meaning of the quest was a journey through a fictional computer labyrinth, which was drawn with the symbols "+", "-" and "!", And the monsters opposing the player were designated by letters. Moreover, according to the plot of the game, the player had a faithful assistant - a dog, which, of course, was indicated by the @ sign. However, it is not possible to find out whether this was the root cause of the generally accepted name or whether the game appeared after the word “dog” had already become established.

Tip 9: How to type characters using the additional keyboard

For most programs capable of editing text, there are special characters that can be inserted into a document using a character table or by pressing the Alt key combination and a sequence of numbers on the NUM pad - the so-called Alt code.

Not everyone uses these functions, but there are times when such combinations are necessary. In order not to panic at the moments when it became necessary to put a symbol that is not on the visible keyboard, you should familiarize yourself with the additional capabilities of the computer and text editors.

Where to see the available special characters

To view the special characters available for use, you need to go to the "Start" menu, open "All Programs", "Standard", "System Tools", and select the "Symbol Table" item.

In the window that opens, you can see all the available special characters, there are about three thousand of them. In addition, if necessary, symbols from this table can be copied to the clipboard in order to transfer them to the edited document. To do this, you need to select the required font, then select the character of interest from the table, click the "Copy" button, then in the edited text, place the cursor on the place where the character should be, and paste it from the clipboard using the appropriate command or pressing Ctrl + V ...

How to use Alt code

Special characters can be typed by pressing the key sequence on the optional NUM pad while holding down the Alt key.

To do this, you need to turn on the numbering mode by pressing the NumLock key - the NumLock indicator will light up.
After that, you can move on to a set of code. By pressing and holding the Alt key, enter a character code consisting of a sequence of numbers on the additional numeric keypad and release Alt.

What is the knowledge of symbols in Alt-code useful for?

Your name will look very unusual if you write it in beautiful characters to your taste, for example, on social networks such as VKontakte. Among the most popular signs that can be written in symbols is the euro sign? (Alt + 0136). The next sign - "paragraph" becomes almost irreplaceable: § (Alt + 0167). An equally popular sign is the infinity sign: ∞ (Alt + 8734). For developers of sites and design products, it will be useful to know the "trademark" sign: ™ (Alt + 0153). It is important to know how you can quickly write the degree sign "°" (Alt + 0176). This symbol is useful for both students and freelancers. And another popular symbol on the web is the copyright sign: © (Alt + 0169). Sign: ± (Alt + 0177). The sign of the registered trademark (service mark): ® (Alt + 0174) will help to emphasize the importance of the brand. Also, many people like to write such symbols and signs on the keyboard: ☺ symbol (Alt + 1), ☻ symbol (Alt + 2), symbol (Alt + 3).

Common smilies and their designation

The author of the first emoticons from symbols is considered to be the American scientist Scott Fahlman, who in 1982 proposed to indicate the seriousness or frivolity of messages on the university bulletin board by combining punctuation marks such as a colon, dash and round. :-) and:-(

And even earlier, in 1969, the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov, then living in the United States, guessed to use the parenthesis as a smile or chagrin. In an interview with an American magazine, he hinted that it would be nice to come up with a special typographic symbol to denote the author's emotions, then sometimes it would not be necessary to answer stupid questions from journalists.

Punctuation marks on the keyboard are shown in the second row from the top. It is enough to hold down the "Shift" button (in the fifth row from the top, the first button) and select the appropriate character in the row of numbers and symbols.

Modern users of computers and mobile phones have more than 60 emoticons in their arsenal. The most common ways to express emotions are:

:) simple smile
:)) happy smile
:> irony
: D laugh
: (chagrin, sadness
Z: (anger
:,(tears
O_o shock
OO surprise
:-*
C) a smile under sunglasses
:-/ disappointment

O. is used as big eyes. To create a wide smile, press the capital letter "Di" after the colon. To indicate irony, you need to switch to the English layout and select the angle bracket. You can indicate age or belonging to any youth culture. For example, a little girl is given a bow on her head, which is indicated by an eight 8 :-). And punk will draw his distinctive mohawk using the equal sign = :-)

Some people use symbols to paint full-fledged faces. This style of emoji is called Kaomoji or anime. Parentheses are used to denote cheeks, and between them the necessary signs are inserted for a particular emotion. For example: (^_^) means smile, joy, shutting your eyes with pleasure. The cheeks and mouth are typed in the Russian layout, the eyes in English (number 6 with the key held down). If you add \ and / to the face from the sides, you get a man jumping for joy with raised up.

Symbols can also come in handy for identifying items and gifts. For example, let's say you want to give a rose to the person on the other side of the screen. Most of all, the icon "dog", that is @, looks like a pink bud. A hyphen is suitable as a stem, and a leaf is drawn using an inclined stick. You can present a flower with a ribbon by taking a curly brace in the form of a ribbon. As a result, it may look like this: @ - / --- or so @) ---. The gift can be in the form of a cake made of square brackets: [,,,]. Candles are inserted using the "ё" button on the English layout.

Users with a rich imagination manage to draw a hare or using several options for brackets and spaces. Open a blank sheet in Word and experiment with clicking different buttons, changing layouts, etc. Perhaps it will also turn out to be a masterpiece.

Smilies: to use or not?

Use emoticons in correspondence should be careful, otherwise people may mistake you for a frivolous person. It is worth refraining from printed smiles if you communicate on work ICQ with people in a higher position. You can only show your emotions to close friends, so they will understand you more easily.