# What is \[the @ symbol\] called\[?\]
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 14, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161 "2007-09-14T12:45:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/1 "2007-09-14T12:45:46Z")
This\>\>\>& is an ampersand
So what is the proper name for this\>\>@
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/2 "2007-09-14T12:48:35Z")
[@](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign):
> [@](#):
>
> …no formal English term has been officially assigned to this character
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### Author:  [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/3 "2007-09-14T12:50:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> English: The “at” sign, at. Also often used for an array in programming.
[http://www.hopstudios.com/nep/theatsignpage/](http://www.hopstudios.com/nep/theatsignpage/)
> [@](#):
>
> Some English speakers call @ “commercial-a” or “commercial-at.” Also heard in English:
>
> ```
> * mercantile symbol
> * commercial symbol
> * scroll, or scroll-a
> * arobase
> * each
> * about
> * vortex
> * whorl
> * whirlpool
> * cyclone
> * snail
> * schnable
> * cabbage
>
> ```
> **[A Natural History of the @ Sign: Part One](https://www.herodios.com/atsign.htm)**
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### Author:  [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/4 "2007-09-14T12:51:49Z")
Way to kill a thread m’boy
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### Author:  [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/5 "2007-09-14T12:54:21Z")
Moderating:
I took the liberty of making the thread title a bit more descriptive.
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### Author:  [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/6 "2007-09-14T13:00:01Z")
Thanks
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### Author:  [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/7 "2007-09-14T13:29:48Z")
With the large-scale adopting of the @ symbol as the divider between username and host in e-mail addresses, it seems like everybody will be calling it “at” forevermore, even if it doesn’t have a formal name.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/8 "2007-09-14T13:35:45Z")
In Spanish it’s called “arroba”. Only recently did I find out that that’s the name of an old, now little-used unit of volume – sort of like our “peck”. I presume the symbol was once used to designate that unit, and has now been revived massively for its new use in the dot-com era.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/9 "2007-09-14T13:46:58Z")
Lots of user contributions from different languages: [Does the symbol @ have a name? If not, any suggestions? | Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk](http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1773,00.html)
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### Author:  [@Kairos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kairos)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/10 "2007-09-14T16:21:45Z")
From the [Jargon File](http://catb.org/jargon/html/A/ASCII.html) : The official ANSI/CCITT name is “commercial at.” It also goes by: at sign; at; strudel; each; vortex; whorl; whirlpool; cyclone; snail; ape; cat; rose; cabbage.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/11 "2007-09-14T16:38:27Z")
“At sign” is all I’ve ever seen used, and I’ve encountered the names for other signs.
This, for example, is a _virgule_: /
This is an _octothorpe_: #
This seems to be most often referred to as a _pipe_, presumably from programming: |
And this, of course, is a _virgule sinister_\*, also called a _backslash_: \
- Yes, “Virgule Sinister” does sound like a minor character from the Harry Potter books.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/12 "2007-09-14T16:45:08Z")
My typing teacher called it an “at” sign back in the '80s. In the typing exercises it was typically used in such quantity orientated phrases like “4 apples @ $1.00.”
I see the linked Guardian article notes that the Dutch call it a “monkey tail”. That also what the Germans call it: _Affenschwanz_. 😃
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/13 "2007-09-14T19:43:53Z")
Appersat.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/14 "2007-09-14T19:47:30Z")
[QUOTE=fiddlesticks]
My typing teacher called it an “at” sign back in the '80s. In the typing exercises it was typically used in such quantity orientated phrases like “4 apples @ $1.00.”
I see the linked Guardian article notes that the Dutch call it a “monkey tail”. That also what the Germans call it: Affenschwanz. 😃
[/QUOTE]
My typing teacher in 1966 did the same.
Yow! “Schwanz” means “tail” in German? That shines a new light on all those guys in non-polite conversation, talking about their “tails!” 😃
ETA: I’m trying to figure out if **Hari Seldon** ’s “Appersat” affects my post. 😕
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### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/15 "2007-09-14T19:48:52Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=320243&highlight=Appersat](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=320243&highlight=Appersat)
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### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/16 "2007-09-14T19:55:01Z")
[QUOTE=Hari Seldon]
Appersat.
[/QUOTE]
Do you mean “ampersat”? I’ve heard it called that, but I assume someone made it up by analogy to the ampersand:
& \> “and” \> ampersand
@ \> “at” \> ampersat
My favorite is the “interrobang” (which I believe is the username of a poster here):
‽
(If that character doesn’t display, check [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang) for more info.)
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/17 "2007-09-14T20:54:19Z")
[QUOTE=jackelope]
Do you mean “ampersat”? I’ve heard it called that, but I assume someone made it up by analogy to the ampersand:
& \> “and” \> ampersand
@ \> “at” \> ampersat
My favorite is the “interrobang” (which I believe is the username of a poster here):
‽
(If that character doesn’t display, check [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang) for more info.)
[/QUOTE]
I’m on thin ice, here, but bear with me. I thought I’d seen this in one of Charles Earle Funk’s little books of peculiar words and phrases. I just checked the indexes of all four, though, with no luck.
It goes something like this. Long ago English schoolchildren, learning their letters, would recite “a, per se, a. b, per se, b.” and so on. Per se meant “as it is” (in Latin?) When they came to the punctuation, it went the same way. “&” was “and, per se, and.” Later on, kids simply said “A,B,C”, and so on. The “&”, though, had already slipped from “and, per se, and” to “ampersand.”
So, perhaps appersat came from the same chain of events. Or, perhaps it didn’t. That’s as far as I care to chase it.
Sometimes, such as in this font, the “&” is pictured as a stylized uppercase E mooshed together with a lowercase t. That is more clearly from the French (and Latin?) “et.” It looks more like a half pretzel in my usual font.
That’s the best I can do. If it’s mistaken, it’s mistaken, and I’ll take no offense if you harpoon it and leave its carcass rotting on the beach.
(I have tried to repair the punctuation in this post, but I probably still have a few commas misplaced. Sorry.)
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/18 "2007-09-14T20:58:19Z")
[QUOTE=fiddlesticks]
My typing teacher called it an “at” sign back in the '80s.
[/QUOTE]
Same here. My first middle school typing class would have been in the 1980-81 school year.
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### Author:  [@Aioua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aioua)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/19 "2007-09-14T20:58:37Z")
and of course, & doesn’t stand for “and” it stands for “et.” (latin “and”!) So the ampersat construction really falls apart. On the plus side, instead of “etc.” you could type “&c.” and no one could say you were wrong.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-symbol-called/419161/20 "2007-09-14T21:30:32Z")
In the late 1950s, I was taught the octothorpe/pound/hash/sharp sign as a number/pound sign. Placed ahead of a number (#8,) it meant “number 8.” Placed after a number, (8#,) it meant “8 pounds (weight).” Back then, the pound usage was rarely seen.
Now, it’s all different. “Pound” is usually the name, leading some computer rookies to pound on their keyboards. :eek:
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