# Where it's "@"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 2, 2000, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068 "2000-02-02T21:20:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@drollman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drollman)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2000, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/1 "2000-02-02T21:20:00Z")
What does “@” mean? In today’s high-tech world @ is read as “at”. But I’ve also seen it read as “circa” (especially in photographs: “@ 1930” for example) And I’ve heard others read it as “around” ("@ 8 tonight" for example) Even my fathers old manual typewriter from the 1930’s has the “@” symbol. What did it originally mean?
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With God as my witness, I thought turkey’s could fly.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2000, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/2 "2000-02-02T21:31:00Z")
The symbol originally appeared in Sanskrit as the capital 2. As the use of capital numbers declined, other meanings were assigned…
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2000, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/3 "2000-02-02T21:34:00Z")
@ also can represent “for” or “each”
As in “On Sale. Apples. 12 @ $3”
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### Author:  [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2000, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/4 "2000-02-02T21:45:00Z")
It’s been “at” for a long time. Way before there were any dot-coms to worry about. The use of the symbol and the “at” pronunciation in URLs is derived from the traditional usage, not the other way around.
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“pluto … a seriously demented but oddly addictive presence here.” – TVeblen
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### Author:  [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2000, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/5 "2000-02-02T23:00:00Z")
DrFidelius quoth:
> [@](#):
>
> The symbol originally appeared in Sanskrit as the capital 2. As the use of capital numbers declined, other meanings were assigned…
Actually, in Sanskrit the capital 2 was written as " (the quote character.) The @ symbol did not come into common usage as the capital 2 until the advent of the Aramaic numeral system around the beginning of the Common Era.
See also [bit-paired keyboard](http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/bit-paired-keyboard.html).
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2000, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/6 "2000-02-02T23:20:00Z")
What? Next you’ll be trying to tell me that the Rig Veda doesn’t mention Oldsmobiles…
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### Author:  [@beefymeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beefymeg)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2000, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/7 "2000-02-03T00:12:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by BobT:
> @ also can represent “for” or “each”
>
> As in “On Sale. Apples. 12 @ $3”
Maybe I should’ve ignored this, but in this context, “@” still means “at.”
## Apples: 12 at $3.
Sucks to your assmar.
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### Author:  [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2000, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/8 "2000-02-03T02:13:00Z")
Apples priced $36 a dozen is not a very good sale.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen @ used for circa by anyone who I thought had a clue as to what he was doing. The usual abbreviation for circa is c. or sometimes ~, and “around” is of course just the English equivalent of “circa”.
I’ve occasionally seen it used as a misguided attempt at the copyright symbol (a c in a circle).
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### Author:  [@Keeves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeves)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2000, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/9 "2000-02-03T15:54:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Even my fathers old manual typewriter from the 1930’s has the “@” symbol.
That typewriter presumably uses an English (or at least Latin) alphabet. The word “at” is also an English word, and the “a in a circle” form derives from the first letter of the word “at”.
All that was a lead-in to this: I participate in a mailing list about the Hebrew language, and the question was recently asked: “What is that character called in Hebrew?”
The answer was: “It’s called a ‘strudel’ - think of what a cross-section of that cake looks like.” And then several people wrote in, that it is called ‘strudel’ in other languages as well, but I don’t remember which.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Zambezi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Zambezi)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/10 "2000-02-03T16:09:00Z")
Upper case _numbers_? Could somebody elaborate on this? I have never heard of this before.
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### Author:  [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2000, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/11 "2000-02-03T17:59:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by Mr.Zambezi:
> \*\*Upper case _numbers_? Could somebody elaborate on this? I have never heard of this before. \*\*
Sure you have: look at the keyboard you’re using. For example, the upper case 7 is &, the upper case 4 is $, and so on. You just need to use the shift key.
Of course, when you get into the question of uppercase _irrational_ numbers, then things get a bit tricky…
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…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2000, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/12 "2000-02-03T19:41:00Z")
Gee, I just thought that was a convenient way to store symbols with fewer keys. Put some above the numbers. You have already made the shift key for upper case letters, so there’s extra space.
I never interpreted that to mean the symbols above the numbers were equal to the numbers.
How come we don’t write "@ + @ = "? And does @ + 2 = 4, or , or something else?
_Capital_ numbers (uppercase numbers)?
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### Author:  [@Scout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scout)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2000, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/13 "2000-02-03T22:23:00Z")
Um, Mr. Z.? Irishman? It’s a joke.
There was a little blurb about the @ symbol in a recent issue of the newsletter of an editors’ association I belong to. It mentioned that although it’s just called “the ‘at’ symbol” in English, other languages have names for it like “cat’s paw” or “monkey’s tail.”
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2000, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/14 "2000-02-04T01:52:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Actually, in Sanskrit the capital 2 was written as " (the quote character.) See also [bit-paired keyboard](http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/bit-paired-keyboard.html).\*\*
Thank you for this link! Now I know where the insane layout on Japanese keyboards (at least the ‘uppercase number’ part of it) came from - the Teletype. We’re still stuck with Shift 2 for double quote and shift 7 for single quote, and you can imagine how hard it is to type English sentences on them.
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2000, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/15 "2000-02-05T06:33:00Z")
Before the teletype, there were manual typewriters. In a remarkable instance of tradition not ruling forever, when electric typewriters came out, a few changes were made in the keyboard layout. Unfortunately, ASCII, the bit-paired keyboard, and (I gather) some non-English keyboards to this day follow the pre-electric layout.
Manual typewriters also didn’t have a “1” key (you used “l”), and the exclamation point had to be made by overstriking “’” and “.”.
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John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
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### Author:  [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2000, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/16 "2000-02-05T06:49:00Z")
Actually, the “@” symbol is derived from a Chinese ideogram meaning “entire coiled line is twenty-seven feet long”. Therefore, in it’s purest interpretation “@” means “The Whole Nine Yards”.
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Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars.
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### Author:  [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2000, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/17 "2000-02-05T06:51:00Z")
In Cantonese, of course, “@” means “rope of 324 inches”.
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### Author:  [@woodja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodja)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/18 "2000-02-04T19:11:00Z")
This makes sense. When the gunner on a WWII bomber fires a whole magazine at an attacker, the sound the gun makes is “rat-at-at-at-at-at” etc.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2000, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/19 "2000-02-05T01:33:00Z")
I call it the ‘at sign’ ‘atsign’ Course no dictionary I looked at has it. But some do.
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### Author:  [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2000, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-its/7068/20 "2000-02-05T02:37:00Z")
Well, my dictionary doesn’t say anything about the @ sign, except it’s listed in a “Symbols and Signs” list under ‘symbol’. (This, of course, brings up the question whether Cecil has ever schooled us in the difference between a sign and a symbol (not those things in bands).)
But my dictionary says that, in Laos, 100 at = 1 kip, so @ that rate, when I buy a dozen apples, I should be able to kip the change. No, that can’t be the Laosiest pun you ever heard.
Ray (cheap @ any price)
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