All about the @
So, there is a symbol that most of us use every day but few of us ever think about. This symbol is the "@".
Prompted by the discovery that in French it is called "un arobas" I looked up "@" in Wikipedia and found myself much more fascinated than I ever would have thought that I would be in this situation. (I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised, given that I am interested in learning about pretty much everything - the more everyday the thing, the better - but I was.)
The entire entry is interesting and can be found here. However, the part that I was most taken with is the list of the symbol's names in English, as well as in other languages. I thought that it was very interesting to see how the names reflect how people view the symbol.
A commercial at, @, also called an at symbol, an at sign, or just at, and sometimes mistakenly called an ampersand ([I interject: by idiots!] & is the ampersand), is a symbolic abbreviation for the word at. It is assigned to Unicode code point U 0040 (ASCII character 64). Its formal name comes from its commercial use in invoices, as in, "7 widgets @ £2 ea. = £14". It is also known as: about; ampersat or asperand (Was it really necessary to make those names so close to "ampersand"?); amphora; ape; arobase; atgry; cabbage; cat; cinnabun or cinnamon bun; commercial symbol; cyclone; each; mercantile symbol; rose; schnable; scroll or scroll-a; snail; strudel; these; vortex; whirlpool; or whorl. Some of these are based on specialized usage, others are visual descriptions, and atgry (plural atgrynge) is a recurring joke proposed on Usenet as the answer to a pair of longstanding linguistic riddles - the singular atgry is a third word that ends in gry, along with angry and hungry, and the plural atgrynge provides a word that rhymes with orange.
I have never heard the vast majority of these names used and would likely laugh at anyone who called "@" a cinnamon bun, cat, cabbage, or many of those other names. Fine, it does sorta look like that, but come on! Anyone over the age of 8 using those names will seem silly.
In most languages other than English, the symbol was virtually unknown before E-Mail became widespread in the mid-1990s. Consequently, it is often perceived in those languages as denoting "The Internet", computerization, or modernization in general.
In Bulgarian, it is called маймунско а ("monkey A").
In Dutch, it is called apenstaartje ("little monkey-tail").
In Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Brazil, it denotes a weight of about 25 pounds. The weight and the symbol are called arroba. (In Brazil, cattle is still priced by the arroba - now rounded to 15 kg)
The French name is arobas or a commercial, and sometimes escargot ("snail"). Other names include queue de singe (monkey-tail) and a dans le rond (a in the circle).
In Modern Hebrew, it is colloquially known as Shtrudel (שטרודל). The normative term, invented by the Academy of the Hebrew Language, is kruhit (כרוכית), which is a Hebrew word for Shtrudel.
In Italian it is chiocciola ("snail") or chiocciolina ("little snail").
In Spanish it is called arroba.
In German, it is Klammeraffe, meaning "clinging monkey", or kaufmännisches A, meaning "commercial A".
In Danish, it is snabel-a ("(animal's) trunk-a").
In Finnish, it was originally called taksamerkki ("fee sign") or yksikköhinnan merkki ("unit price sign"), but these names are long obsolete and now rarely understood. Nowadays, it is officially ät-merkki, according to the national standardization institute SFS; frequently also spelled "at-merkki". Other names include kissanhäntä, ("cat's tail") and miukumauku ("the miaow sign").
In Korean, it is golbaeng-i, a dialectal form of daseulgi, a small freshwater snail with no tentacles.
In Lithuanian, it is eta (equivalent to English at but with Lithuanian ending)
In Mandarin Chinese, it is xiao laoshu, meaning "tiny mouse", or laoshu hao ("mouse sign").
In Persian it is at (using the English pronunciation).
In Polish, officially it is called atka, but commonly małpa (monkey) or małpka (little monkey).
In Romanian, it is Coadă de maimuţă (monkey-tail) or "a-rond"
In Russian, sobaka (собака) (dog) or sometimes sobachka (собачка) (doggy)
In Swedish, it is called snabel-a ("(elephant's) trunk-a")
In Slovenian, it is called afna (little monkey)
In Hungarian, it is called kukac (worm or maggot).
In Czech and Slovak, it is called zavináč (rolled pickled herring).
In Norwegian, it is officially called krøllalfa ("curly alpha" or "alpha twirl"). (The alternate alfakrøll is also common.)
In Catalan it is called arrova or ensaïmada, the roll brioche typical from Majorca.
In Japanese it is called naruto (ナルト, "maelstrom", often used with connotations to spirals), or attomāku (アットマーク, "at mark") a combination of English words, known as wasei-eigo.
In Turkish it is et (using the English pronunciation). Also called as güzel a (beautiful a), özel a (special a), salyangoz (snail)
In Greek it is called παπάκι (small duck) although παπάκι (small duck) is best suited to the Ampersand sign (&).
In Esperanto, it is called ĉe-signo ("at"), po-signo ("each" -- refers only to the mathematical use) or heliko ("snail").
Vietnamese speakers typically just use "at sign" (pronounced as in English) when referring to the symbol.
And thus ends today's educational post.
Prompted by the discovery that in French it is called "un arobas" I looked up "@" in Wikipedia and found myself much more fascinated than I ever would have thought that I would be in this situation. (I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised, given that I am interested in learning about pretty much everything - the more everyday the thing, the better - but I was.)
The entire entry is interesting and can be found here. However, the part that I was most taken with is the list of the symbol's names in English, as well as in other languages. I thought that it was very interesting to see how the names reflect how people view the symbol.
A commercial at, @, also called an at symbol, an at sign, or just at, and sometimes mistakenly called an ampersand ([I interject: by idiots!] & is the ampersand), is a symbolic abbreviation for the word at. It is assigned to Unicode code point U 0040 (ASCII character 64). Its formal name comes from its commercial use in invoices, as in, "7 widgets @ £2 ea. = £14". It is also known as: about; ampersat or asperand (Was it really necessary to make those names so close to "ampersand"?); amphora; ape; arobase; atgry; cabbage; cat; cinnabun or cinnamon bun; commercial symbol; cyclone; each; mercantile symbol; rose; schnable; scroll or scroll-a; snail; strudel; these; vortex; whirlpool; or whorl. Some of these are based on specialized usage, others are visual descriptions, and atgry (plural atgrynge) is a recurring joke proposed on Usenet as the answer to a pair of longstanding linguistic riddles - the singular atgry is a third word that ends in gry, along with angry and hungry, and the plural atgrynge provides a word that rhymes with orange.
I have never heard the vast majority of these names used and would likely laugh at anyone who called "@" a cinnamon bun, cat, cabbage, or many of those other names. Fine, it does sorta look like that, but come on! Anyone over the age of 8 using those names will seem silly.
In most languages other than English, the symbol was virtually unknown before E-Mail became widespread in the mid-1990s. Consequently, it is often perceived in those languages as denoting "The Internet", computerization, or modernization in general.
In Bulgarian, it is called маймунско а ("monkey A").
In Dutch, it is called apenstaartje ("little monkey-tail").
In Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Brazil, it denotes a weight of about 25 pounds. The weight and the symbol are called arroba. (In Brazil, cattle is still priced by the arroba - now rounded to 15 kg)
The French name is arobas or a commercial, and sometimes escargot ("snail"). Other names include queue de singe (monkey-tail) and a dans le rond (a in the circle).
In Modern Hebrew, it is colloquially known as Shtrudel (שטרודל). The normative term, invented by the Academy of the Hebrew Language, is kruhit (כרוכית), which is a Hebrew word for Shtrudel.
In Italian it is chiocciola ("snail") or chiocciolina ("little snail").
In Spanish it is called arroba.
In German, it is Klammeraffe, meaning "clinging monkey", or kaufmännisches A, meaning "commercial A".
In Danish, it is snabel-a ("(animal's) trunk-a").
In Finnish, it was originally called taksamerkki ("fee sign") or yksikköhinnan merkki ("unit price sign"), but these names are long obsolete and now rarely understood. Nowadays, it is officially ät-merkki, according to the national standardization institute SFS; frequently also spelled "at-merkki". Other names include kissanhäntä, ("cat's tail") and miukumauku ("the miaow sign").
In Korean, it is golbaeng-i, a dialectal form of daseulgi, a small freshwater snail with no tentacles.
In Lithuanian, it is eta (equivalent to English at but with Lithuanian ending)
In Mandarin Chinese, it is xiao laoshu, meaning "tiny mouse", or laoshu hao ("mouse sign").
In Persian it is at (using the English pronunciation).
In Polish, officially it is called atka, but commonly małpa (monkey) or małpka (little monkey).
In Romanian, it is Coadă de maimuţă (monkey-tail) or "a-rond"
In Russian, sobaka (собака) (dog) or sometimes sobachka (собачка) (doggy)
In Swedish, it is called snabel-a ("(elephant's) trunk-a")
In Slovenian, it is called afna (little monkey)
In Hungarian, it is called kukac (worm or maggot).
In Czech and Slovak, it is called zavináč (rolled pickled herring).
In Norwegian, it is officially called krøllalfa ("curly alpha" or "alpha twirl"). (The alternate alfakrøll is also common.)
In Catalan it is called arrova or ensaïmada, the roll brioche typical from Majorca.
In Japanese it is called naruto (ナルト, "maelstrom", often used with connotations to spirals), or attomāku (アットマーク, "at mark") a combination of English words, known as wasei-eigo.
In Turkish it is et (using the English pronunciation). Also called as güzel a (beautiful a), özel a (special a), salyangoz (snail)
In Greek it is called παπάκι (small duck) although παπάκι (small duck) is best suited to the Ampersand sign (&).
In Esperanto, it is called ĉe-signo ("at"), po-signo ("each" -- refers only to the mathematical use) or heliko ("snail").
Vietnamese speakers typically just use "at sign" (pronounced as in English) when referring to the symbol.
And thus ends today's educational post.