Symbol @ mainly used in Internet e when writing an email address. It serves as a kind of separator between the domain name on which the email account is registered and the username.

Now many Internet figures call this symbol "one of the main pop symbols of our time." Evidence of universal recognition for this symbol is the fact that in February two thousand and four, the symbol was introduced into Morse code, in which it combines the codes of the Latin letters A and C. Now this symbol can be proudly called the "International Telecommunication Union".

But this symbol, just recently recognized, is not as young as one might think of it. The Italian researcher Giorgio Stabile in the city of Prato, in the archives of the Institute of Economic History, discovered a document on which this sign is first encountered in writing. The document, dated 1536, turned out to be a letter from a merchant, and a symbol @ it indicated containers with wine delivered on merchant ships to Spain. After analyzing the data, scientists came to the conclusion that most likely the symbol @ denoted a measured unit equal to the ancient universal measure of volume - amphora.

The American scientist Berthold Ullman put forward the assumption that the symbol @ invented by medieval monks. And the symbol was used to shorten the word of the Latin language - " ad", Which is one of the universal words, and meaning" in "," on "," in relation to "and the like.

In French, Portuguese, and Spanish, the name of the symbol @ comes from the ancient word "arroba" - a Spanish measure of weight, equal to about fifteen kilograms, which in the letter is abbreviated by the symbol @ .

Symbol @ now has an official name - " commercial at". This name originates from accounts. Since the symbol was often used in business, they decided to place it on typewriter keyboards. Symbol @ was already present at the keyboard of the first Underwood typewriter, which was released in 1885. Later, computer keyboards also inherited this symbol.

According to the official history of the Internet, it is generally accepted that the symbol @ appeared in the e-mail address thanks to Ray Tomlinson - an American computer scientist and engineer. It was he who, back in 1971, sent the first e-mail. He chose the symbol @ as a separator between two names, since this character did not appear in the names themselves.

In Russia, it is customary to call the symbol @ "Dog"... This funny name can be explained in several ways. For starters, the symbol itself is visually similar to a curled up dog. And the sound of the English word "at", which is included in the official name, slightly resembles a dog barking. Also, if you turn on your imagination, then in the symbol @ you can see all the letters from the word "dog", only with the exception of the letter "k".

There is also a more interesting version of the origin of this name. Long ago, when computer displays were purely text-based, there was a popular electronic game called " Adventure", Or" Adventure ". The game was a journey through labyrinths, in which treasures were hidden, but underground monsters also roamed about. The maze consisted of the symbols "+", "-" and "!", And the player, treasures, and monsters were designated by various letters and signs. According to the plot, in the game the player had a loyal companion and friend - a dog who was sent on reconnaissance. And this dog was designated by the symbol @ ... But it is not known whether the symbol was already called a dog at that time, or, on the contrary, this was the root cause of this name.

It is also worth noting that in Russia the symbol @ in addition to "dog", they call "ram", "ear", "bun", "frog" and even "mackerel".

As already mentioned, in France, Spain and Portugal, the symbol is called "arroba". In America and Finland @ called "cat", "mouse" in China and Taiwan, "monkey" in Poland, Croatia, Holland, Romania, Serbia, Germany and Slovenia, "snail" in Italy, "worm" or "tick" in Hungary, "rosette" in Turkey, "whirlpool" in Israel, "rollmops" in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, "little pasta" in Greece, "crooked A" in Vietnam, "monkey A" in Bulgaria, "monkey tail" in the Netherlands, "cat's tail" in Finland, "elephant trunk" in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and in Latvia and Lithuania - "et" and "this".

On the Internet, the well-known symbol "dog" is used as a separator between the name of a given user and the name of the domain (host) in the syntax of e-mail addresses.

Notoriety

Some Internet figures consider this symbol to be a signature of the common human communication space and one of the most popular signs in the whole world.

One of the evidence of the worldwide recognition of this designation can be called the fact that in 2004 (February) the International Telecommunication Union introduced a special code for the designation @ into the common special code. It combines the codes of two C and A, which reflects their joint graphic writing.

History of the dog symbol

The Italian researcher Giorgio Stabile managed to find in the archives owned by the Institute of Economic History in the city of Prato (which is near Florence), a document in which this sign is first encountered in writing. Such an important testimony turned out to be a letter from a merchant from Florence, which was subsidized as early as 1536.

It refers to three merchant ships that arrived in Spain. The vessels' cargo included containers in which wine was transported, marked with the @ sign. After analyzing the data on the price of wine, as well as on the capacity of various medieval vessels, and comparing the data with the general system of measures used at that time, the scientist concluded that the @ sign was used as a special measuring unit that replaced the word anfora (translated "amphora"). This is how the universal measure of volume was called since ancient times.

Berthold Ullman's theory

Berthold Ullman is an American scientist who suggested that the @ symbol was developed by medieval monks in order to shorten the common word ad of Latin origin, which was often used as a universal term meaning "in relation", "in", "on".

It should be noted that in French, Portuguese and Spanish, the name of the designation comes from the term "arroba", which in turn denotes the Old Spanish measure of weight (about 15 kg), abbreviated in the letter @.

Modernity

Many people are interested in the name of the "dog" symbol. Note that the official modern name of this symbol sounds like "commercial at" and originates from the accounts in which it was used in the following context: [email protected]$ 2each = $ 14. This can be translated as 7 pieces of $ 2 = $ 14

Since the dog symbol was used in business, it was placed on the keyboards of all typewriters. He even attended the first typewriter at Underwood, which was released back in 1885. It was only after 80 long years that the first computer keyboards inherited the dog symbol.

Internet

Let's turn to the official history of the World Wide Web. She claims that the Internet dog symbol in e-mail addresses originated from an American engineer and computer scientist named Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 managed to send the first ever e-mail message across the network. In this case, the address had to be composed of two parts - the name of the computer through which the registration was made, and the username. Tomilson chose the "dog" character on the keyboard as a separator between the specified parts, since it was not part of either computer names or usernames.

Versions of the origin of the famous name "dog"

There are several possible versions of the origin of such a funny name in the world. First of all, the badge really looks a lot like a curled up dog.

In addition, the abrupt sound of the word at (the symbol for a dog in English is read this way) resembles a bit of a dog barking. It should also be noted that with a good imagination, you can see in the symbol almost all the letters that are part of the word "dog", except perhaps, excluding "k".

However, the following legend can be called the most romantic. A long time ago, in that good time, when all computers were very large, and screens were purely text-based, there was one popular game in the virtual kingdom, which got a name that reflects its content - "Adventure" (Adventure).

Its meaning was to travel through a maze created by a computer in search of various treasures. There were, of course, battles with underground harmful creatures. The maze on the display was drawn using the symbols "-", "+", "!", And the player, hostile monsters and treasures were designated by various icons and letters.

Moreover, according to the plot, the player was friends with a faithful helper - a dog, who could always be sent for reconnaissance in the catacombs. That one was designated just by the @ sign. Was this the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, on the contrary, was the icon chosen by the developers of the game, because it was already called that? The legend does not give answers to these questions.

What is the name of the virtual "dog" in other countries?

It is worth noting that in our country the symbol "dog" is also called a ram, an ear, a bun, a frog, a dog, and even a mallard. In Bulgaria, it is "maymunsko a" or "klomba" (monkey A). In the Netherlands - apenstaartje. In Israel, the sign is associated with a whirlpool (strudel).

The Spanish, French and Portuguese call the designation in the same way as the measure of weight (respectively: arroba, arrobase and arrobase). If you ask about the meaning of the dog symbol among the inhabitants of Poland and Germany, they will answer you that it is a monkey, a paper clip, a monkey's ear or a monkey's tail. It is considered a snail in Italy, calling it chiocciola.

The least poetic names were given to the symbol in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, calling it "snout a" (snabel-a) or elephant's tail (tailed a). The most appetizing name can be considered a variant of the Czechs and Slovaks, who consider the sign to be a herring under a fur coat (rollmops). The Greeks also associate with the cuisine, calling the designation "little pasta".

For many, it is still a monkey, namely for Slovenia, Romania, Holland, Croatia, Serbia (maјmun; alternative: "crazy A"), Ukraine (alternatives: snail, doggie, dog). The terms Lithuania (eta - "eta", borrowing with the addition of a Lithuanian morpheme at the end) and Latvia (et - "et") were borrowed from the English language. The variant of the Hungarians, where this cute sign became a tick, can be disheartening.

Finland (cat's tail), America (cat), Taiwan and China (mouse) play cat and mouse. Residents of Turkey (rose) turned out to be romantics. And in Vietnam this badge is called "crooked A".

Alternative hypotheses

It is believed that the name of the designation "dog" in Russian speech appeared thanks to the famous DCK computers. In them, the "dog" appeared during computer boot. Indeed, the designation resembled a small dog. All DVK users, without saying a word, came up with a name for the symbol.

It is curious that the original spelling of the Latin letter "A" was supposed to decorate it with curls, thus it was very similar to the current spelling of the "doggy" sign. The translation of the word "dog" into the Tatar language sounds like "et".

Where else can you find a "dog"?

There are a number of services that use this symbol (besides email):

HTTP, FTP, Jabber, Active Directory. In IRC, the symbol is placed before the name of the channel operator, for example @oper.

The sign is also widely used in the main programming languages. In Java, it is used to declare annotation. In C #, it is needed to escape characters in a string. The operation of taking an address is appropriately denoted in Pascal. For Perl, this is an array identifier, and in Python, accordingly, a decorator declaration. The field identifier for an instance of a class is a Ruby sign.

As for PHP, here the "doggie" is used in order to suppress the output of an error, or to warn about a task that has already occurred at the time of execution. The symbol became the prefix for indirect addressing in MCS-51 assembler. In XPath, it is shorthand for the attribute axis, which selects a set of attributes for the current element.

Finally, Transact-SQL assumes that the local variable name must begin with @ and the global variable name must begin with @. In DOS, thanks to the symbol, echo is suppressed for the executable command. The designation of an action like echo off mode is usually used before entering mode to prevent a specific command from being printed to the screen (for clarity: @echo off).

So we looked at how many aspects of virtual and real life depend on an ordinary symbol. However, let's not forget that it became the most recognizable thanks to the emails that are sent in thousands every day. We can assume that today you will receive a letter with a "dog", and it will bring only good news.

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 they were 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 call the "monkey's tail", in Israel - "strudel", and in Italy, and 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 call it a "rosette". 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 for this character 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). This 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 that 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 slightly similar.

Keyboard icon

The "dog" icon 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, in order to avoid confusion in the separation of the username and the e-mail 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 network did not attract 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 life.

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 such topics that should be of 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 @ mail sign. We hope that our article broadened your horizons and you learned something new.

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 don't 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 drop-down box 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 maze fictional by a computer, 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 the 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 symbols 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 then transfer them to the edited document. To do this, 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, 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. Pressing and holding the Alt key, enter the 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 symbols 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). It will be useful for developers of sites and design products to know the "trade mark" 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).

There are other combinations of numbers that are responsible for characters that differ in the Russian and English keyboard layouts. Some of them are unique and are available for input only by using the appropriate Alt-code.

Communication via the Internet or SMS correspondence assumes that the interlocutors do not see each other. To convey mood and emotions in printed form, smilies (from the English smile -smile) help - sets of characters that look like faces.

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, a dash and a 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 grief. 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 those 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 turn out to be a masterpiece too.

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.

On the web, it is used as a separator between username and hostname in the syntax of an email address.

Some figures in the Internet space call this symbol "one of the main pop symbols of our time, a signature of our common communication space." It is somewhat pompous, in my opinion, but the following fact testifies to the worldwide recognition of this symbol, and as it is even sometimes noted, "canonization". In February 2004, the International Telecommunication Union introduced a Morse code for the @ character (. - -. -.) To facilitate the transmission of e-mail addresses. The code combines the Latin letters A and C and reflects their joint graphic writing.

The search for the origins of the @ symbol takes us at least the 15th century, and possibly even further, although linguists and paleographers still disagree on this issue.
Professor Giorgio Stabile put forward such a hypothesis. A 16th century document written by a Florentine merchant mentioned "the price of one A wine" (possibly an amphora). At the same time, the letter A, according to the then tradition, was decorated with a curl and looked like @. American scientist Berthold Ullman put forward the assumption that the @ sign was invented by medieval monks to shorten the Latin word "ad", which was often used as a universal word meaning "on", "in", "in relation", etc. In Spanish, Portuguese, French, the name of the symbol comes from the word "arroba" - an old Spanish measure of weight, approx. 15 kg., Which was abbreviated in the letter with the @ sign.

The modern official name for the "commercial at" symbol comes from accounts, for example, 7 widgets @ $ 2 each = $ 14, which translates to 7 pieces. $ 2 = $ 14. Since this symbol was used in business, it was placed on the keyboards of typewriters and from there migrated to the computer.

We owe the spread of this symbol on the Internet to the forefather of e-mail, Tomlinson. It was he who was the very person who chose the @ symbol. When asked much later why he chose this particular icon, he replied simply: "I was looking on the keyboard for a character that could not occur in any name and cause confusion."
Tomlinson needed such a symbol during the period when he was working on the creation of the message system on the Arpanet network (the progenitor of the Internet). In fact, he had to come up with a new addressing scheme that would identify not only the recipients, but also the computers on which their mailboxes were located. To do this, Tomlinson needed a separator, and his, in general, a random choice fell on the @ sign. The first network address was [email protected]

In Russia, users most often refer to the @ symbol as a “dog”, which is why e-mail addresses formed from personal names and surnames sometimes acquire unexpected coloration. It is curious that this symbol is used in their work as folk talents (for example, the joke: "The dog is gone, @ do not offer"), and the official khokhmachi - KVNschiki (for example, " [email protected]"). But still: why exactly "dog"?

There are several versions of the origin of this funny name.
First, the badge really looks like a curled up dog.
Secondly, the abrupt sounding of the English "at" is a bit like a dog barking.
Thirdly, with a fair amount of imagination, you can consider in the outline of the symbol almost all the letters included in the word "dog", well, perhaps, with the exception of "k".
But the most romantic one is the following legend: “Once upon a time, when computers were large and displays were exclusively text-based, there was once a popular game with an unpretentious name“ Adventure ”. Its meaning was a journey through a computer-created labyrinth in search of treasures and a battle with malicious underground creatures. In this case, the maze on the screen was drawn with the symbols "!", "+" And "-", and the player, treasures and hostile monsters were designated by various letters and icons. Moreover, according to the plot, the player had a faithful assistant - a dog who could be sent to the catacombs for reconnaissance. And it was denoted, of course, with the @ sign. "
Whether this was the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, on the contrary, the icon was chosen because it was already called that, the legend is silent about this.

For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that in Russia "dog" is also called a dog, a frog, a bun, an ear, a ram and even a mackerel. In other countries, this symbol is associated with various objects.
Below is a far from complete list of what the @ symbol is called in other countries.

- Bulgaria - "klomba" or "maymunsko a" (monkey A)

- Netherlands - "apenstartje" (monkey tail)

- Israel - "strudel" (whirlpool)

- Spain, France, Portugal - "arroba", "arrobase" (measure of weight)

- Germany - monkey tail, monkey ear, monkey, paperclip

- Italy - chiocciola "(snail)

- Denmark, Norway, Sweden - "snabel-a" (snout a) or elephant trunk (and with a trunk)

- Czech Republic, Slovakia - rollmops (marinated herring)

- America is a cat

- China, Taiwan - mouse

- Turkey - rosette

- Serbia - "crazy a" or maymun (monkey)

- Vietnam - "crooked a"

- Ukraine - "ravlik" (snail), "doggie" or "doggy", "mavpochka" (monkey)

- Poland, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Holland - "malpa" (monkey)

- Finland - cat's tail

- Greece - little pasta

- Hungary - worm, tick

- Latvia - "et"

- Russia - except for the dog - a dog, a frog, a bun, an ear and a mallard.

As you can see, many peoples associate the @ sign with a cozy animal, some with an appetizing strudel or herring roll, the poetic Turks have been compared to a flower, but the disciplined Japanese use the English "attomark" without any poetic comparisons.