WHERE IT'S @
by Karl-Erik Tallmo

All of a sudden, you see that little sign everywhere: listed on business cards, with bylines in newspapers, on TV. Those who keep up with the information age may know that it is used for e-mail addresses,the code you write when you send an electronic letter from your computer via modem and telephone. But what is it called, and how did it originate?

In Sweden it is popularly known as "cinnamon bun," "a-hose," "elephant's ear," etc. In France it is called "arrobe" (taken from the Spanish) or "petit escargot" (little snail), in Holland "apestaart" or a shortened form, "api" (monkey tail), in Italy "chiocciola" (snail), and in Israel "shtrudel." The Spanish call it "arroba," which also signifies a unit of measure particularly used in the wine trade.

In Finland @ is a "cat's tail" (miau); in Norway it's the "kanel-bolle," a spiral cinnamon cake. In Denmark, you'd hear it called a "snabel" (an a with a trunk); and to Germans it's a "klammeraffe" -- or spider monkey.

In English it is formally called "commercial at" or "at sign" and has been used for a long time in the sense of "at a price of ...(each)": "3 barrels @ $200." Eventually it also took on the locative sense of the word "at".

Not Born Of The Computer Age
The @-sign is definitely not a child of the computer age -- its history goes far back. Berthold Louis Ullman, American professor of Latin and paleography, claims in his book "Ancient Writing and Its Influence" that the at-sign is a ligature, that is, two letters tied together. The Latin preposition "ad", meaning at, to, toward, was simplified, according to Ullman, into something like the @-sign we know. The bowl of the a and the d merged and the upstroke of the d was exaggerated and curved to the left.

The @-ligature might date from the 6th or 7th century. At that time the scribes used the uncial, a hand with rounded, sometimes simplified capitals, which could be written with fewer pen-strokes. A lot of abbreviations and ligatures were developed, partly for convenience and partly as a necessity, for writing close to the end of a line.

Actual Date Of Origin Is Uncertain
We cannot, however, be sure that the sign is as old as that. Maybe it emerged (or re-emerged) in the Gothic hand of the 12th or 13th century, a time when many old conventions for ligatures and abbreviations were revived.

Through the centuries, the at-sign has been used primarily in clerical writing and business correspondence and has long had a place on the typewriter keyboard in many countries. It has been used also in Sweden, and was reportedly available on some early Swedish typewriters.

The at-sign was probably adopted into the computer world around 1970 under the operating system Tenex, and used for e-mail on the early Internet as well as for programming.

This article is brought to you from the pages of

It is a re-print courtesy of Spectrum Multilanguage Communications, translators and foreign language typographers in New York City. From an article originally published in the "Spectrum Newsletter," Vol. 19 No. 1

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The "@" symbol. . .
used by grocers and accountants throughout the English-speaking world to indicate a rate, or cost per unit, as in "10 gal @ $3.95/gal" [ten gallons at three dollars and ninety-nine cents per gallon] has become the de facto delimiter in e-mail addresses, separating the user's name from the domain name.

Although the change from at meaning "for a given amount per" to at meaning "in a specified (electronic) location" comes fairly naturally to English speakers, it does not for native speakers of other languages, for whom neither "at" nor @ meant anything until e-mail came around.

Indeed, a fair number of internet users live in countries that don't use the same alphabet English does (Japan, China, former republics of the Soviet Union including Russia, and Arabic-speaking countries, to name some major ones), and where the keyboards did not conveniently include the @ character until after it's widespread use on the internet made it a necessity.

As a result, while in some languages @ is simply called "at," in others, a wide variety of interesting nicknames have been developed for this little symbol. Most are based on the shape of the character, others are more abstract. Some are original and unique, others are derived from other languages. Some have ancient antecedents, others are still "works in progress." (Internet users in Sri Lanka are even now trying to decide what to call @). In some countries, a variety of ideosyncratic names have appeared simultaneously, while in others, government beauracracies are charged with selecting an "official" term.

Metaphors range from animals (snail, worm, little dog, horse) to body parts (elephant's trunk, monkey's tail, cat's foot, pig's ear) to food (rollmops herring, strudel, cinnamon roll, pretzel). This article includes a sampling of the many names of @, world-wide.

Afrikaans [South Africa]
Afrikaans is spoken mainly by the decendents of Dutch settlers in South Africa. In Afrikaans, some people have begun to call @ "aapstert," [monkey's tail], also a term of endearment for someone who's made a silly mistake. Note that Afrikaans is closely related to Dutch, where @ is called, among other things, "apestaart" meaning, of course, monkey's tail.

Arabic
The various dialects of Arabic are, of course, written in Arabic script, using a very different alphabet from English, French, and other European languages. The @ sign does not appear on manual Arabic keyboards at all, but it is found on dual--English and Arabic-- computer and word processor keyboards. As such, the only use of @ in Arabic is in e-mail addresses. Many people do not even notice it on the keyboard, and do not have a name for it. Most Arab speaking e-mailers either call @ "at" or translate English "at" into Arabic, calling it "fi." However, one person called it "othon" [ ear ]. Another simply called it "a."

Cantonese [Hong Kong]
Most things relating to computers and electronics in Hong Kong, until recently a British Crown Colony, are heavily influenced by native speakers of English. In Hong Kong, most people call it "the at sign" pronounced as in England and the U.S.

Catalan [Catalonia (Spain)]
Most people call it "arrova" (the "rr" is rolled and the "v" is pronounced like a very soft English "b"). In Spanish, the same symbol and name are used to indicate a unit of weight, (1 arrova = approximately 25 U.S. pounds). Like many Spanish terms, this one comes originally from Arabic.

Czech (Czech Republic)
In Czech, @ is called zavinac (pronounced ZAHV-in-ach), meaning "rollmops," or pickled herring. Perhaps the shape suggests herring packed tightly in a jar!

Danish
In Danish it's either called "alfa-tegn" [alpha-sign] or "snabel," [elephant's trunk]. Obviously the former is the more formal useage, but the latter term is used most often when refering to e-mail addresses.

The @ sign is also sometimes called "grisehale" [pig's tail].

Dutch
The imaginations of Dutch speaking people seem to have worked overtime to come up with names for this little symbol. The original name was "een a met een slinger" [an a with a swing ], but was soon more popularly called either "apestaart" or the diminutive "apestaartje" [(little) monkey's tail] or "slingeraap" [swinging monkey"]

Other names attested:
"a-krol" or "a-krul," [curly a].
"slinger-atje" [little swing a]

"apeklootje" [little monkey's testicle].

Since nearly everyone in the Netherlands also speaks English, and as more and more people go on-line, the English term is increasingly recognized.

English
Some English speakers call @ "commercial-a" or "commercial-at." Also heard in English:

Mercantile symbol
Commercial symbol
Scroll, or scroll-a
ASrobase
Each
About
Vortex
Whorl
Whirlpool
Cyclone
Snail
Schnable
Cabbage

FORTH. In the computer programming language FORTH, @ means "fetch."
(Net)Hack. The old (1960's mainframe-based) computer game Hack, now called NetHack, uses ASCII characters to indicate various "dungeons and dragons" - type creatures. For example, a capital "K" represents a Kobold. Evidently, there are some people who use @ online to indicate a human being, as the game does.

Finnish
Many Finnish terms for @ are connected with cats. Not content with naming the sign for what it looks like, Finnish names it for what it looks like sounds like. In addition to "kissanhnta [cat's tail], "miau," "miumau," and "miuku" are all "miau merkki" [meow marks] in Finnish. Other terms from Finnish include "apinanhanta" [a monkey's tail], or "hiirenhanta" [mouse's tail]. Some "computer people" use the English word "at."

French
In French, @ is called "arobase." Probably derived from Spanish "arroba," the word has no other meaning; it is simply the name of the symbol. It is also referred to as "un a commercial" [business a], "a enroule" [coiled a], and sometimes "escargot"[snail] or "petit escargot" [little snail].

Frisian (Friesland, Frisian Islands)
This germanic language is spoken on the Frisian Islands in the North Sea off the coast of Holland, Germany, and Denmark. In Frisian @ is called either "aapke" [little monkey] or "apesturtsje" [little monkey's tail].

German
In German, @ is most often called either "Affenschwanz" [monkey's tail] or "Klammeraffe" [hanging monkey]. This is also a term of zoological classification, for various South American monkeys, including the spider monkey.

Some people call it the "Ohr" [ear].

Greek
In modern Greek, the equivalent Greek expression " sto" is used, a direct translation of the English term [a].

Hebrew
In Hebrew, it's most often either a "shablul" or "shablool"[snail] or a " shtrudl" [strudel, that is, the pastry]. In both cases, it's something that is rolled up.

Hungarian
Hungarians evidently don't think much of e-mail, as they've elected to call the @ sign "kukac" pronounced KOO-kots [worm or maggot].

Indonesian
In Indonesian, @ doesn't really have a name. It's simply pronounced [ uh ] in e-mail addresses, like "username-uh-company-dot-com."

Italian
Italians call @ "chiocciola" pronounced "kee-AH-cho-la" [the snail], and sometimes, "a commerciale" [business a].

Japanese
Japanese borrows words freely from foreign languages, though usually with a distinctly Japanese pronunciation. (For example, English [baseball] is rendered [beisiboru]. Japanese accounting and computer people normally call @ "atto maaku" ["at" mark].

Korean
Many Koreans call it "dalphaengi" [snail].

Lithuanian
The "official" name for @ in Lithuanian is "comercial et," but most people call it "the e-mail sign" (in Lithuanian, of course). Some Lithuanian e-mailers have confused @ with &, calling it "ir" [and].

Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan)
In Taiwan Mandarin Chinese, @ is called "xiao lao-shu" [little mouse] or "lao shu-hao" [mouse sign]. It is also called "at-hao" [at sign] or "lao shu-hao" [mouse sign].

Norwegian
In Norwegian, @ is called either "grisehale" [pig's tail] or "kro/llalfa" [curly alpha]. In academic circles, however, the English term "at" is widely used.

Polish
In Poland most e-mailers call @ "malpa" [monkey].

Other terms: "kotek" [little cat] and"ucho s'wini" [pig's ear].
NOTE: What does the mouse say? The mouse says "click?"

Portuguese
In Portuguese, it's called "arroba," as in Spanish. The symbol is used to indicate a unit of weight with the same name ( 1 arroba = 25 U. S. pounds). Like many Spanish terms, this one comes originally from Arabic.

Romanian
In Romanian, @ is called "la," a direct translation of English "at."

Russian
In Russian, the "official" term for @ is "a kommercheskoe" [commercial a], but it is usually called "sobachka" [little dog or "doggie"].

Other terms:
obezjana [the monkey]
pljushka [a Russian pastry]

Serbian
A variety of terms show up in Serbian. "Majmun" [monkey] is the root of several. This word is borrowed from Turkish. "majmun" [monkey] "majmunski rep" [monkey tail] "majmunsko-a" [monkey-ish a] "ludo-a" [crazy a] "et" [ a ] adapted from English.

Slovak (Slovakia)
In Slovak, like Czech, @ is called "zavinac" (pronounced ZAHV-in-ach), meaning "rollmops," or pickled herring.

Slovenian
The word in Slovene is "afna." Perhaps this is a loan word from German, where the mark is called, among other things, "affenschwanz" [monkey's tail].

There is a similar word in Slovenian, "afna" meaning "a woman who overdresses, applies too much make-up, etc."

Spanish
In Spanish, it's called "arroba." The symbol is used to indicate a unit of weight with the same name ( 1 arroba = 25 U. S. pounds). Like many Spanish terms, this one comes originally from Arabic.

Swedish
E-mailers in Sweden have the greatest variety of terms available for refering to @. The official term recommended by the Svenska Spreknemnden (The Swedish Language Board) is "snabel-a" [trunk-a, or "a with an elephant's trunk], and this is still the most common. At one time, the board attempted to introduce a more serious name, "at-tecken" [at-sign] but it didn't really catch on.

Another imaginative name sometimes heard in Swedish is "kanelbulle" [a kind of cinnamon roll].

Other candidates:
"apsvans" [monkey's tail]
"elefantora" [an elephant's ear]
"kattfot" [cat-foot]
"kattsvans" [cat's tail]
"kringla [pretzel]

Thai
Thai does not have an official name for @, but some people call it " 'ai tua yiukyiu" [the wiggling worm-like character].

Turkish
Most Turkish e-mailers call @ "kulak" [ear] or even "Ohr" ["ear" in German]. Some have suggested calling @ "at" which sounds the same, of course, but in Turkish means "horse."

Sources
The Linguist List, http://www.linguistlist.org
The Pronunciation Guide, http://www.ling.nwu.edu/ ~sburke/ stuff/ pronunciation-guide.txt
380 Internet tips & trucs, by Henk Ellermann, Amsterdam 1995
The Oxford English Dictionary

This article is brought to you from the pages of: Herron Technical Communications
© 1997 Scott Herron
Question or Comments? Email the editor, sherr19@idt.net

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