# What is the @ symbol called? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 8, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388 "2005-06-08T01:45:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/21 "2005-06-08T13:23:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > Before we had internet addresses to provide a use for “@”, it used to be used to convey rates: > > “5 bushels of apples @ $10 each”, and so on. > > You mean the at sign was used to mean “at”? And then email came along and totally revolutionized everything by using it to mean “at”? Gosh, whodathunkit. This is why I love the Straight Dope. Yup – “@” was used to mean “at”, but only in certain circumstances. Nobody ever used it in the middle of sentences in place of the word – “Meet me @ the statue in five minutes”, or in gambling ("@ 5:1 odds"), or (except for Bester, in one novel) in place of the syllable “at” in names. They only used it in a few specific instances. Heck, no point in pointing _that_ out. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/22 "2005-06-08T13:31:32Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Or a hash sign even, I’ve heard that # is used sometimes in the US to denote £GBP but I can’t see why 😕 Because American typewriters had # but not £ ? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/23 "2005-06-08T14:11:43Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > Because American typewriters had # but not £ ? # is one of the more confused symbols. In Canada we call it number-sign. The UK calls it hash. It is sometimes called “pound” in the US. This usage of “pound” sometimes shows up in Canada too, mostly in phone-system instructions, becuae it’s a convenient one-syllable expression, similar to “star” for \*. (“Press pound after entering the number.”) I don’t remember hearing it at all before I encountered such phone systems. I’m sure The Master had something to say about this… ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/24 "2005-06-08T14:51:42Z")
I beleive # is historically referred to as an _octothorpe_. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/25 "2005-06-08T15:03:41Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Or a hash sign even, I’ve heard that # is used sometimes in the US to denote £GBP but I can’t see why 😕 I’ve never seen # used to denote the British pound, but it is often called the pound sign, here in the US. I’ve seen it used it to indicate the unit of weight, the pound. i.e. 10# of potatos ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/26 "2005-06-08T15:23:30Z")
I vaguely remember the @ called “around”. “a” with a circle drawn around it. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/27 "2005-06-08T15:29:39Z")
No idea of the spelling because of course you only hear them @ is ‘chiocciola’ (snail) in Italian and ‘arobaz’ inb French - I’ve never heard arobaz in any other contaxt but with a bit of luck **Clairobscur** will be along to help out. In English this Brit says @ = at, # = hash. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/28 "2005-06-08T15:40:56Z")
Where I used to work, if you were away from your desk and got a call the secretary would answer for you, but you could pick it up anywhere by pressing a certain key combination (like #51). So they would announce over the intercom: “Smith, pound five one”. Everytime I heard that I always thought to myself, “Why can’t Smith just ‘press’ 51”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/29 "2005-06-08T15:41:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Yup – “@” was used to mean “at”, but only in certain circumstances. Nobody ever used it in the middle of sentences in place of the word – “Meet me @ the statue in five minutes”, or in gambling ("@ 5:1 odds"), or (except for Bester, in one novel) in place of the syllable “at” in names. They only used it in a few specific instances. Really? When visiting some distant relatives circa 1979 or 1980, well before widespread e-mail, I remember seeing a note on their family message board that said “Went to Tim’s. Home @ 4,” and puzzling for a long time what exactly @ meant. (My favorite guess was “around”, since it’s a line drawn _around_ an a.) ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/30 "2005-06-08T16:45:05Z")
Two random thoughts on **@** : [ol] [li]Was it ever really a big time-saver, writing “@” instead of “at”? I think it actually takes me _longer_ to write the at-sign than it does a proper “at”, but maybe I should just practice more. Who gave us this ridiculous symbol anyway? Some accountant with no sense of aesthetics is my guess.[/li] Odd that we have a single symbol meaning “at” (for prices originally), one meaning “and”, one meaning “percent”, and one symbol each for various national currencies. But we have no symbol for “or”, “but”, “the”, “this”, “that”, and so many other small words that are much more common than “at”. [li]It amuses me that foreign languages end up calling “@” by some other, unrelated name, like “monkey’s tail” or “elephant snout”, which in a way destroys the rationale for having it in Internet addresses. If you’re not reading the symbol as “at”, then the convention makes no sense.[/li] That’s not to make fun of foreigners. If anything I’m making fun of the engineers (fellow Americans in fact) who chose this convention years ago, oblivious to email’s global future. [/ol] ---
**Author:** ![sciguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@sciguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciguy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/31 "2005-06-08T17:43:07Z")
> [@Dan Norder](#): > > You mean the **at sign** was used to mean **“at”**? And then email came along and totally revolutionized everything by using it to mean **“at”**? Gosh, whodathunkit. This is why I love the Straight Dope. I’m at work, so I don’t have the reference book on hand (I’m pretty sure I read it in _Where Wizards Stay up Late: the Origin of the Internet_), but the separator symbol between the username and the domain was chosen just because it was a little-used ASCII symbol, and was not a valid character for either usernames or domain names. When the email specs were being developed, they needed _something_ as a separator, it could’ve just as easily been a # or =. The “at” convention was a coincidence. Ok, as I tried to dig up a cite, I came across this, which implies that the “at” meaning of the symbol may have had an influence in the choice of separator character: [http://www.chick.net/wizards/email.html](http://www.chick.net/wizards/email.html) {about 1/4 of the way down the page, I just did a “Find” on that page for “@”, it’s the second hit} ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/32 "2005-06-08T17:52:26Z")
Commercial at. ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/33 "2005-06-08T18:01:58Z")
> [@sciguy](#): > > The “at” convention was a coincidence. I don’t think it was completely coincidental. There was a set of available seperators and @ was a nice fit for the purpose. The writers of the original RFC governing Internet email would likely have been well aware of @'s conventional uses. Your story sounds a bit like the "“Pine is not Elm” internet legend. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/34 "2005-06-08T18:35:38Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > Esperanto is rarely used, that is… 😛 We’re working on that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/35 "2005-06-08T18:57:26Z")
[amphora](http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/whereat.htm) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/36 "2005-06-08T18:58:40Z")
> [@haardvark](#): > > I beleive # is historically referred to as an _octothorpe_. No. [That’s a neologism coined by a Bell Labs employee in the 60s.](http://www.sigtel.com/tel_tech_octothorpe.html) It has a far longer history being known as a hash symbol. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/37 "2005-06-08T19:01:11Z")
[Linky link.](http://www.sigtel.com/tel_tech_octothorpe.html) [Also look here.](http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-oct1.htm) > [@](#): > > With all these terms about, inventing a new one, especially such an odd-ball one as octothorpe, would seem to serve no practical purpose. The evidence suggests that it was originally a jokey term among engineers at Bell Labs in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/38 "2005-06-08T19:07:27Z")
[QUOTE=Bytegeist] [li]It amuses me that foreign languages end up calling “@” by some other, unrelated name, like “monkey’s tail” or “elephant snout”, which in a way destroys the rationale for having it in Internet addresses. If you’re not reading the symbol as “at”, then the convention makes no sense.[/list][/li][/QUOTE] In India, they get _very_ precise and read “@” as “at the rate of.” “my dot name at the rate of company dot com.” It makes me giggle. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/39 "2005-06-08T20:24:58Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > In India, they get _very_ precise and read “@” as “at the rate of.” “my dot name at the rate of company dot com.” It makes me giggle. That’s odd. I have many relatives living in India, and I’ve never heard anyone say that when they give me their email addresses. Where did you hear this? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388/40 "2005-06-08T20:34:24Z")
> [@Cagey Drifter](#): > > That’s odd. I have many relatives living in India, and I’ve never heard anyone say that when they give me their email addresses. Where did you hear this? From pretty much all my relatives in Bombay, Delhi, and Calcutta – and it was people from all kinds of backgrounds, including, accounting, engineering, and advertising. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/307388.md?page=3)