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What is the name for the @ (at) symbol?

Question #24627. Asked by Simon.
Last updated Dec 26 2016.

Related Trivia Topics: Name Game  
Friar Tuck
Answer has 5 votes
Friar Tuck

Answer has 5 votes.
Atmark according to link http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Atmark (however research including the new link suggests it was actually 'at mark' not a single word here. -satguru)
Definition: A newly current word for the 'at' character @. Also called the 'At Sign', 'Commercial At', 'Commercial At Sign', 'Commercial Symbol'.
Also has numerous nicknames, including snail, arabesque, monkey, curl, cabbage, twiddle, twist, a-twist, strudel, vortex, whorl, whirlpool, cyclone, ape, cat, rose.
The official ANSI/CCITT name is 'commercial at'. In the PostScript language it is called the 'at' sign.
The expansion of the Internet has brought the sign into prominence, but it remains a mystery why people have difficulty naming the symbol, which has been on typewriter keyboards since the nineteenth century. Perhaps the decline of traditional arithmetic teaching and manual book-keeping ( '15 neeps @ 2 farthings each' ) caused the meaning of the symbol for the younger generation to drop out of knowledge just before it acquired a new use.

The single unit term Atmark perhaps has some utility for people speaking aloud Internet addresses.

Derivation: The atmark written as a single character is a manuscript abbreviation of the Latin 'ad', which means 'at'.

Response last updated by satguru on Dec 26 2016.
Nov 27 2002, 4:17 PM
Senior Moments
Answer has 6 votes
Currently Best Answer
Senior Moments

Answer has 6 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Which language would you like it in?
In German, it is frequently called Klammeraffe,.
Danish has grisehale,as does Norwegian, but more often calls it snabel a, as does Swedish, where it is the name recommended by the Swedish Language Board.
Dutch has apestaart or apestaartje, this turns up in Friesian as apesturtsje and in Finnish in the form apinanhanta.
Finnish also has kissanhanta, and miukumauku.
In Hungarian it is kukac.
In Serbian majmun, with a similar term in Bulgarian.
Both Spanish and Portuguese have arroba.
In Thai, the name translates as 'the wiggling worm-like character'.
Czechs often call it zavinac.
The most-used Hebrew term is strudel. Another common Swedish name is kanelbulle.
The most curious usage, because it seems to have spread furthest from its origins, whatever they are, is snail. The French have called it escargot for a long time (though more formal terms are arobase or a commercial), but the term is also common in Italian (chiocciola), and has recently appeared in Hebrew (shablul), Korean (dalphaengi) and Esperanto (heliko).
In English the name of the sign seems to be most commonly given as at or, more fully, commercial at, which is the official name given to it in the international standard character sets. Other names include whirlpool (from its use in the joke computer language INTERCAL) and fetch (from FORTH), but these are much less common. A couple of the international names have come over into English: snail is fairly frequently {used;} more surprisingly, so is snabel from Danish.
link http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/whereat.htm

Nov 27 2002, 5:48 PM
Gnomon
Answer has 3 votes
Gnomon
23 year member
1331 replies

Answer has 3 votes.
In English, it is called 'at' or 'the at symbol'.

Nov 27 2002, 10:23 PM
noomguod
Answer has 3 votes
noomguod

Answer has 3 votes.
It's called the "addeco"...sincerely.

Apr 24 2012, 6:10 PM
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satguru star
Answer has 3 votes
satguru star
Moderator
21 year member
1246 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
It's primary name is asperand although it's not in many dictionaries. link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign#Theories_of_origin

Dec 26 2016, 9:37 PM
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