# How do you say @?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 29, 2001, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246 "2001-01-29T09:09:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/1 "2001-01-29T09:09:16Z")
We use that funky symbol (@) everyday, usually in E-mail. But I have no idea to say it (except when reading an E-mail address out loud, then it’s “[Whatever-at-Whatever.com](http://Whatever-at-Whatever.com)”). But, anyway, I was perusing through some random trivia books, and I came across a comment that says that @ has no official name. So what the heck do we call this thing? Where did it originate? What purpose did it serve before E-mail, if any? DID it exist before E-mail? What’s the capital of Assyria? (Ignore that last question.)
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### Author:  [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/2 "2001-01-29T09:11:39Z")
at
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### Author:  [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/3 "2001-01-29T09:15:15Z")
and to answer your last question
Ashur before the rule of Ashurnasirpal II, the son of Tukulti-Ninurta II. Then it became the city of Calah till the fall of the Empire.
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### Author:  [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/4 "2001-01-29T09:20:11Z")
I like “ampersat”. It would be useful to distinguish between “at” and “@” in the same way we distinguish between “and” and “&”. 😃 See [this earlier thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32917).
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/5 "2001-01-29T09:23:30Z")
“Atmark” or “at sign”
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32917](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32917)
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45525](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45525)
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### Author:  [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/6 "2001-01-29T10:46:04Z")
My typography book here confirms it’s called an ‘at’.
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### Author:  [@Napoleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napoleon)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/7 "2001-01-29T11:51:30Z")
In Holland we actually call it a “Monkeytail”
This is because a Monkey is an “Aap” in dutch, and so @ kinda looks like an Aap with his tail around him.
And yes, we’re quite certain that the guy who thought of this was extremely stoned at that time.
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### Author:  [@Pyrrho12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrrho12)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/8 "2001-01-29T12:04:59Z")
In Korean, it’s called a golbengi.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/9 "2001-01-29T13:49:27Z")
In Hebrew, it’s called a “Strudel”.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/10 "2001-01-29T13:50:59Z")
And what about Ninveh?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/11 "2001-01-29T14:45:40Z")
I believe it’s called an “atsign”, as people have noted above, and is usually simply pronounced “at”.
One of the cute features in Science Fiction writer Alfred Bester’s book “The Demolished Man” is that it posits a future where “@” and “&” are used in names, so “Atkinson” is written “@kinson”, and “Wygand” becomes “Wyg&”. These are the sort of tricks crossword puzzle makers like to fool with.
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### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/12 "2001-01-29T16:06:16Z")
A related question: Is it called “at” because it’s a form of shorthand and not a true “symbol”?
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/13 "2001-01-29T17:07:16Z")
Right. Then @ symbol is simply an example of old shorthand: the letter _a_, which is still discernible, and what’s curling around it is what used to be a _t_ but is now distorted out of shape.
Similar in origin is the &. It goes back to ancient Roman shorthand; it’s just a big _E_ followed by a small _T_: the Latin word for ‘and’, _et_. Look in some of your formal cursive fonts, the kind used on engraved envelopes. There both the _E_ and _T_ are still clearly visible.
Medieval scribes used many more shorthand figures that haven’t survived in modern typography. One common thing was to write a squiggle or line over a letter, which took the place of _n_. Taking notes in a college class, I heard advice to write “with” as _c_ with a line over it, abbreviation for Latin _con_. This one is a survival of medieval shorthand. The tilde ~ is this old shorthand _n_; in medieval Spanish the palatal nasal was written as a double _nn_, which now appears as _ñ_. Compare the old spelling _duenna_, which is written _dueña_ in modern Spanish.
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### Author:  [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/14 "2001-01-29T17:41:15Z")
To me, it’s just an ASCII symbol, and I don’t have any need for a way to pronounce it. In an email address, it stands for “at”, but it’s not like I’m going to go up to someone and say “@”.
It’s a bit like asking how to pronounce “:)”.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/15 "2001-01-29T17:47:14Z")
prins
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### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/16 "2001-01-29T19:55:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo \*
> \*\*Taking notes in a college class, I heard advice to write “with” as _c_ with a line over it, abbreviation for Latin _con_. This one is a survival of medieval shorthand. \*\*
Great factoid. I never knew why my mother (a nurse; hence night always becomes “noc” in her notes to me) wrote “with” as that curious sign. I’ve always used the shorthand:
w/
though I can’t recall now where I picked it up.
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### Author:  [@smaft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smaft)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/17 "2001-01-29T20:58:10Z")
Here’s more info than you really wanted to know:
[http://www.herodios.com/herron\_tc/atsign.html](http://www.herodios.com/herron_tc/atsign.html)
Yeeha!
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2001, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/18 "2001-01-29T22:19:33Z")
Following up on what **CalMeacham** and **Jomo Mojo** said, when the & sign was first introduced, it was, in fact, considered equivalent to “et” for all purposes, and not just the word for “and”. For instance, the word “manet” (“it remains”) is sometimes seen written as “man&”.
As to the original use of the @ sign, it’s also seen in itemized lists, invoices, or receipts:
5 widgets, @ $1.50: 7.50 3 doodads, @ .75: $2.25
Total: $9.25
etc. In such cases, it’s spoken as either “at” or “each”
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### Author:  [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2001, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/19 "2001-01-30T00:46:10Z")
In Taiwan it’s called _xiao laoshu_, or “little mouse”.
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### Author:  [@queen\_bumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/queen_bumpy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2001, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say/52246/20 "2001-01-30T00:50:01Z")
In Spanish it’s called “arroba,” which is a unit of measure, similar to a bushel or a peck. Not surprising, b/c it looks like a hug around the neck.
QB
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