5 facts about @

@ All the familiar icon was not known in this country before the computer age. Usually when borrowing the name from another language is not new is invented, but simply copied. But sometimes the original name can be unpronounceable, indecent or relevant rules of the language. Apparently, this is what happened with the @ symbol – its official name of “commercial floor” Russian ear seems completely pointless. So why “dog”?

1. In the 1990′s, when the @ first tried to translate into Russian, there were a lot of options equal – “krakozyabrami”, “hook”, “frog”, “ear”, and others. True, they are now almost disappeared, and “dog” has spread around the Runet remained, because any language tends to have only one universal word for anything there. Other names are marginal, although there may be a lot. For example, in English, the @ symbol is called not only the words commercial at, but mercantile symbol, commercial symbol, scroll, arobase, each, about, etc.

2. exotic There is a version that jerky at English pronunciation can remind dog barking. However, a much more plausible hypothesis connects our character from a very old computer game Adventure. It had to go through the maze, fighting with various unpleasant underground creatures. Since the game was a text, the player himself, the walls of the maze, monsters and treasures given different symbols (for example, the walls were the billeting of “,” “+” and “-”). Player in the Adventure accompanied dog who could send out reconnaissance missions. It denotes the @ symbol. Perhaps it is because of this now-forgotten computer game rooted in Russia called the “dog.”

3. @ icon used in commercial calculations – in the sense of “the price» (at the rate). Say, 10 gallons of oil at a price of $ 3.95 per gallon will be briefly recorded: 10 gal of oil @ $ 3.95/gal. In English-speaking countries, the symbol is used in science to mean “if”: for example, the density of 1.050 g / cm at 15 ° C will be written: 1.050 g / cm @ 15 ° C. In addition, the @ sign to love and often use anarchists because of its resemblance to their character – “And in the circle.”

4. From the point of view of the linguist Ulman, the @ symbol was invented by medieval monks to reduce the Latin ad («on”, “in”, “against”, and so on), which is very similar to the current use. Another explanation gives Italian scholar Giorgio Stabile – he found this character in the records of a Florentine merchant Francesco Lapi for 1536 in the sense of “amphora”, for example, the price of one @ fault. Interestingly, the Spanish and Portuguese called the symbol in an email it is the “amphora» (arroba) – a word that the French, distorted, turned into arobase.However, in different countries, there are a variety of names for the @ symbol, most zoos. Poles call it the “monkey”, the Taiwanese – “mouse”, Greek – “duck”, Italians and Koreans – “snail”, Hungarian – “worm”, the Swedes and Danes – “elephant trunks”, Finnish – “cat’s tail” or ” sign meow “, and Armenians, like us, -” dog. “ There are culinary names – “strudel” in Israel and “rollmops” (marinated herring) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In addition, often the character is simply called “crooked, A”, or “And with curl”, or the Serbs, “nuts, A”.

5. However, the most remarkable of modern stories connected with the @ symbol has occurred in China, where the sign is called corny “And in the circle.” Several years ago, the Chinese couple gave a name newborn. May have taken as a sign of character, symbolizing technological progress, and decided that he would bring happiness and success to the young inhabitant of the Middle Powers.

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