commercial at

character "@". ASCII code 64. Common names: at sign, at,

strudel. Rare: each, vortex, whorl, INTERCAL: whirlpool,

cyclone, snail, ape, cat, rose, cabbage, amphora. ITU-T:

commercial at.

The @ sign is used in an electronic mail address to separate

the local part from the hostname.

It is ironic that @ has become a trendy mark of Internet

awareness since it is a very old symbol, derived from the

latin preposition "ad" (at).

Giorgio Stabile, a professor of history in Rome, has traced

the symbol back to the Italian Renaissance in a Roman

mercantile document signed by Francesco Lapi on 1536-05-04.

In Dutch it is called "apestaartje" (little ape-tail), in

German "affenschwanz" (ape tail). The French name is

"arobase". In Spain and Portugal it denotes a weight of about

25 pounds, the weight and the symbol are called "arroba".

Italians call it "chiocciola" (snail).

See @-party.

(2003-04-28)