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The internets rescued @ from the obscurity of old-fashioned grocers' signs, where it was relegated to describing price per unit, like apples @ $1.09/lb. But how do you say @?
I call it an at sign and I think that's the most common English term. Other languages, apparently,* have more inventive and descriptive names . In Russian it's sobaka (собака), meaning little doggie. In Swedish it's snabel-a, that is, "trunk-a," as in elephant's. In Dutch it's called apenstaartje, "little monkey tail," while in Hungarian the sign is named kukac, meaning worm. Somewhat more prosaically, in Greenlandic @ is aajusaq meaning "something that looks like an a."
*"Apparently," because I don't actually know any of these languages. If you do and I've gotten it wrong -- or, better yet, if you have a nickname for @ in some other language -- please let me know.
12 comments:
It's snabel-a in Danish too. I always call it the at sign. My dad claims it more correctly means about though.
It's like the (&) sign. Why can't I call it the "and-sign"? Why ampersand?
(I'm hoping blogger doesn't eat my comments as it has be wont to do at your site)
When I was young, I misunderstood that sign to mean, "about" or "approximately." My parents would use it when leaving notes, for example: "We will be home @ 7:00" Well since they were seldom home precisely at the moment they said, I assumed it was a symbol to indicate some approximation of time or distance. This lead to embarrassing misuses of the symbol on my part, until I finally got things figured out. I think just calling it the "at sign" could potentially spare the humiliation of many a youngster. :)
This post is why I am addicted to reading your blog.
(If you did not enjoy reading "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" I'd be mightily surprised.)
In German, we have "Klammeraffe" (spider monkey), but I don't think it is used a lot these days, at least not in my generation (English words are much more cool, you see). Apparently you can say "ensaimada" in Catalan, which is the name of a sweet roll/swirl-like local specialty, so that would fit. However, I don't know whether the term is used much.
As I understand it, the @ is actually an "a" sitting in the center of an "e," and during its grocery-sign heyday it was really an "each" sign, as in "Peaches @ 60 cents" to tell you each peach was being sold for 60 cents, rather than a pile of peaches for so much a pound. (Alas, I can't figure out how to coax a cent sign out of my keyboard.)
Now that @ is an "at" sign instead of and "each" sign, you're more likely to see "Peaches 60 cents ea." Which is more grammatical but less collectible.
Likewise, and ampersand is an abstraction of "e" and "t" (et=and).
I love the Scandinavian elephant trunk.
In Spanish it's called 'arroba', that is an ancient weight measure unit. Don't know why. Yes, you can call it ensaimada in Catalan, descriptive but not usual.
I thought in English you could say 'a in a circle', is that so?
Marta
S Interesting. I hadn't heard the a in an e theory. I've read theories that @ comes from an elaboration of the French à, or a deformation of the Latin "'ad," but you might well be right.
Marta Thanks for the Spanish word.
I've never heard anyone call it "a in a circle," but perhaps they do in other parts of the US or in other English-speaking countries.
In Japan they call it the "atto maku," the phonetic pronunciation of "at mark." Internet addresses have brought Japan's exaggerated pronunciation of western words to new highs (or lows). Any . is "dotto" -- for dot, of course.
Hebrew: strudel, like the rolled pastry.
Actually, the Russian is "sobachka" which is little dog. Sobaka is just plain ol' regular-sized dog.
Thanks, shinejil! Now I just need someone to check my Greenlandic.
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