Where IT's @

Chief researcher Marilyn Terrell tickles our trivia centers this week with a coda to her Croatian adventure:

I was trying to send Goran this photo I took of him on my trip to Croatia, but when I typed what I thought he had dictated to me, my email kept bouncing back. I called him again and he repeated the same thing, some email address involving the word 'monkey.' When I sounded confused, he stopped and consulted a friend. When he came back, he said, 'At. You say "at." We say "monkey."' Which is when it dawned on me: 'monkey' is Croatian for '@'.

After I stopped laughing, I started thinking. How many other names are there in the world for the 'at' sign? Obviously, not everyone calls it 'at.' So I did a little research and found some interesting articles about the origins of @, which may have been invented by weary sixth-century monks as a shorthand version of the Latin 'ad' meaning 'at,' 'to' or 'toward' (Unrelated question: Did monks get carpal tunnel syndrome?)

In computer usage, it was Ray Tomlinson who sent the first e-mail in 1971, and he picked the @ to separate the user name from the host name, as a way of saying this message is from so-and-so who is at such-and-such a computer.

Around the world, Danes call the symbol snabel meaning 'elephant's trunk.' The Dutch say 'ape's tail.' The Greeks call it 'little duck.' In Hebrew it's 'strudel.' Hungarians say 'worm' or 'maggot.' Italians call it 'snail.' In Taiwan, it's 'little mouse.' Russians say 'little dog.' In Turkey they call it 'ear.' In addition to 'monkey,' Croatians also sometimes call it ludo, meaning 'crazy.'

And IT is crazy grateful for Marilyn's research into this topic. It's a relief to know we'll be able to speak geek (at least a little) throughout our worldly travels.

Comments

[Holger]

In German the @-symbol is called "Klammeraffe" which means "clasping monkey".

[Marilyn Terrell]

Thanks Holger, I appreciate knowing that! Have you seen the news story about the Chinese couple who wanted to name their baby @, which sounds like the Mandarin word meaning "love him" ?
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/08/21/couple-tried-to-name-baby/

[I Franco]

In portuguese(Europe) the symbol @ is called "arroba" and I have no idea why. The word "arroba" is the name of an old measure of weight equal to about 15kgs.

[I Franco]

In portuguese(Europe) the symbol @ is called "arroba" and I have no idea why. The word "arroba" is the name of an old measure of weight equal to about 15kgs.