A Brief History of the "@" Symbol, What Does It Mean?
The use of the '@' symbol is familiar, especially in electronic mail (e-mail). In typography, the symbol is called the "At sign". However, in some countries, the name may vary. In Italy, for example, the '@' symbol is called the slug symbol.
It's different again in the Netherlands who call it a symbol of "monkey tail". As the name suggests in typography, the symbol is also read with an "at". For example, the e-mail address: [email protected], is pronounced as xxx(at)gmail(dot)com. The use of the '@' sign varies. In accounting and commercial invoicing, the at sign means "assessment". While in the field of digital communication, including chat, the '@' sign is often used for "mention" or "calling".
The history of the '@' symbol from time to time
Traces of using the '@' symbol were found in several locations around the world. Reported by Today I Found Out, the symbol '@' was first found in a Bulgarian writing from the Manasses Chronicle in the 12th century, in 1345 to be exact.
The writing tells about a brief history of the world until the end of the 11th century. In it, the '@' symbol is used as for "amen". In addition, '@' is also found in Spanish notebooks from 1448. The record describes the shipment of grain from the Kingdom of Castile to the region of Aragon.
Other historical accounts for the '@' symbol being used in the commercial setting of Italian trade. As found in a letter written by the Florentine merchant, Francesco Lapi on May 4, 1536.
In the letter, he uses the '@' symbol to denote a unit of measure named "amphora". Amphora is defined as a clay jar filled with wine and has a size equivalent to 1/13 of a barrel.
There is other evidence of the use of the '@' symbol from Spain which describes it as a symbol for the unit of measure called arroba. The term Arroba itself is taken from Arabic which means ar-rub which means a quarter. Meanwhile, according to the Oxford dictionary, the symbol '@' was invented by religious leaders who used it as a substitute for the Latin "ad" which means at, towards, by and around.
The idea is linked to the theory of a simple way to combine two letters into one (the letters 'a' and 'd'). The goal is none other than to be able to write faster and save time.
The '@' symbol first appears in e-mail. The history of this symbol does have different versions and different uses. But in 1971 a computer scientist from the United States named Ray Tomlinson implemented the '@' symbol in his own version.
Tomlinson created a small program called SNDMSG which stands for Send Message (now known as e-mail). This program is designed to be able to send messages from one user to another on the same computer. He also developed SNDMSG on the first ARPANET network by combining the SNDMSG and CPYNET programs.
In developing it, according to him, an e-mail naming system must have two elements, namely a computer name and a user name. He finally chose the '@' symbol. The reason is, according to Tomlinson the '@' symbol is the only symbol in his model 33 teletype.
A teletype or also known as a teleprinter is a communication device used to send typed messages through various communication channels.
Tomlinson's consideration of embedding the symbol was to make it easier for the computer to be able to read the recipient or sender of the e-mail. Incidentally, at that time there was still no appropriate symbol to simplify the e-mail naming system so that it was universally accepted on all computers.
Until then the use of the '@' symbol was increasing used and developed into a special symbol for sending messages, including e-mail addresses. Currently the use of the '@' symbol is not only fixed on e-mail but has also developed in the use of social media such as Twitter and Instagram, the '@' symbol is defined to refer to the user's account name or handle.
