 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004The origin of the @ sign
Hello there, I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making some kind of notes in his diary. To my surprise he wrote something like "done @ noon 1967". I thought the @ sign (which BTW is in my native Polish called "malpka"= little monkey) is pretty recent. Does anybody know its origin? Regards, Jurek >Hello there, >I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making some >kind of notes in his diary. To my surprise he wrote something like "done @ >noon 1967". I thought the @ sign (which BTW is in my native Polish called >"malpka"= little monkey) is pretty recent. Does anybody know its origin? It depends what you mean by "pretty recent". The @ - the "commercial at sign" has been traced back to May 4, 1536. See: http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_at  SignaturePeter Duncanson UK (posting from a.e.u) > Hello there, > I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making some > kind of notes in his diary. To my surprise he wrote something like "done @ > noon 1967". I thought the @ sign (which BTW is in my native Polish called > "malpka"= little monkey) is pretty recent. Does anybody know its origin? It is an ancient symbol which was originally either a version of "A" for "amphora" or a version of the Latin word "ad," meaning, among other things, "at." See what Michael Quinion wrote about it in his *World Wide Words* Web site at http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/whereat.htm SignatureRaymond S. Wise Minneapolis, Minnesota USA E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com "Raymond S. Wise" wrote ... See what Michael Quinion wrote about it in his *World Wide Words* Web > site at... The "@" was (may still be) used by UK Customs for ' Whence' in respect of arriving traffic (e.g., SS Halizones @ Hong Kong). This would seem to be related to the meaning 'fetch (from forth)' given on that page. AOT > I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making some > kind of notes in his diary. To my surprise he wrote something like "done @ > noon 1967". I thought the @ sign (which BTW is in my native Polish called > "malpka"= little monkey) is pretty recent. Does anybody know its origin? This symbol was widely used in (English language) business accounts in the 19th century (or earlier) and thence borrowed by 20th century computer programmers. People used to write: 4 Christmas turkeys @ 3s.6d. . . . 14s. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) > > I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making some > > kind of notes in his diary. To my surprise he wrote something like "done @ [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > People used to write: > 4 Christmas turkeys @ 3s.6d. . . . 14s. Borrowed by way of the typewriter keyboard, where it appeared precisely because it was used in business contexts. The cents sign was also used in business contexts and made it onto the typewriter keyboard, but it didn't make the transition to the computer keyboard. I presume this was because at the time it had become more standard in business letters to refer to cents with the "$0.XX" format, but would be happy to hear others' speculation about why the cents sign did not make it onto the computer keyboard. SignatureRaymond S. Wise Minneapolis, Minnesota USA E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com >> > I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making >some [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] >with the "$0.XX" format, but would be happy to hear others' speculation >about why the cents sign did not make it onto the computer keyboard. That seems a reasonable speculation. The cents sign was on early "computer keyboards" in the form of the keyboards on card punches - for instance the IBM 029 Key Punch. http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/029.html IBM's EDCDIC code includes the cents character. Based on the information in this page other computer makers did not follow IBM's example. http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/codes.html SignaturePeter Duncanson UK (posting from a.e.u) In alt.english.usage on Sun, 28 Dec 2003 11:47:33 -0600 "Raymond S. Wise" <illinoisNOSPAM@mninter.net> posted: >Borrowed by way of the typewriter keyboard, where it appeared precisely >because it was used in business contexts. The cents sign was also used in The @ sign was the only character on the typewriter keyboard that wasn't used for much in my experience. That's why when my friend Bob and I were juniors in high school we used it as the base number for our number system. Just as i was used to represent the square root of -1, we used @. >business contexts and made it onto the typewriter keyboard, but it didn't >make the transition to the computer keyboard. I presume this was because at >the time it had become more standard in business letters to refer to cents >with the "$0.XX" format, but would be happy to hear others' speculation >about why the cents sign did not make it onto the computer keyboard. s/ meirman If you are emailing me please say if you are posting the same response. Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years Indianapolis, 7 years Chicago, 6 years Brooklyn NY 12 years Baltimore 20 years > In alt.english.usage on Sun, 28 Dec 2003 11:47:33 -0600 "Raymond S. > Wise" <illinoisNOSPAM@mninter.net> posted: [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > Brooklyn NY 12 years > Baltimore 20 years As scholars in the UK in the pre-decimal 1960s, we were taught to use @ as a mathematical shorthand for "at" when referring to the unit price of a commodity. So, instead of writing "6 apples at 1/- each = 6/-", we could write "6 apples @ 1/- = 6/-". It is still used today with pounds and (new) pence. David > Hello there, > I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making some > kind of notes in his diary. To my surprise he wrote something like "done @ > noon 1967". I thought the @ sign (which BTW is in my native Polish called > "malpka"= little monkey) is pretty recent. Does anybody know its origin? Others have answered, but I thought I'd add that I call it an 'ampersat', by extension of 'ampersand'. This was an invention of a friend of mine at university, but it's such a perfect word that I think it deserves wider usage... Danny In alt.english.usage on Sat, 27 Dec 2003 21:31:45 +0100 "Jurek" <jajoorek@NO_SPAMpoczta.onet.pl> posted: >Hello there, >I was recently watching a movie in which one moment a man was making some >kind of notes in his diary. To my surprise he wrote something like "done @ >noon 1967". I thought the @ sign (which BTW is in my native Polish called >"malpka"= little monkey) is pretty recent. Does anybody know its origin? More recent than 1967? 1967 was yesterday. >Regards, >Jurek s/ meirman If you are emailing me please say if you are posting the same response. Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years Indianapolis, 7 years Chicago, 6 years Brooklyn NY 12 years Baltimore 20 years > In alt.english.usage on Sat, 27 Dec 2003 21:31:45 +0100 "Jurek" > <jajoorek@NO_SPAMpoczta.onet.pl> posted: [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Brooklyn NY 12 years > Baltimore 20 years @ did not use to mean "at," but "at . . . each." "Apples @ 5 cents" means "Apples at 5 cents each." Cece |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.