Really Gre@, Alan!
Jack
On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, Alan S. Harrell wrote:
> On 27 Apr 2000, 21:05, John Tracy McGrath wrote:
>
> > I wonder if anyone can tell me the name of the little "at sign," @, that
> > ia part of the email address?
> >
> > I remember its use before the Internet as shorthand in accounting text:
> >
> > 14 apples @ $0.10 = $1.40
> >
> > But never knew its name (or if it has one!)
>
> It is called the "at sign."
>
> However, this is interesting:
>
> cite: http://www.lingsoft.fi/~reriksso/typography.html#ligatures
>
> <quote>
>
> ligatures -- a collective name for characters which "melt together".
>
> Classical Latin has �, French has a similar oe: � (this might not
> display as a ligature in your browser); Northern and Eastern European
> languages have an exciting plethora of national characters which have
> often historically evolved from some kind of ligature (i.e. the
> original German � was originally drawn as a small e on top of an o;
> this was then borrowed into Swedish).
>
> Like many contemporary ligatures, the ampersand & "et" was developed as
> a shorthand by medieval scribes.
>
> The American @ "at" has a somewhat similar history; it was used for
> enumerating prices ("5 apples at 1 dollar makes 5 dollars" would be "5
> apples @ $1 -- $5"). Of course, this sign is now in ubiquitous use in
> Internet email addresses. It is called "commercial at" in many
> languages, but there is a large assortment of animal-related colloquial
> names in various languages as well. See this article
> <http://www.herodios.com/herron_tc/atsign.html> or try a canned Alta
> Vista search. Interesting names include Sp. "arroba" (Fr. "arobase")
> and Dutch "apeklootje" ('little monkey's testicle').
>
> In fine typography, some combinations of letters are often represented
> by ligatures. I.e. the two letters "fi" would be replaced by a single
> glyph which looks like the "head" of the f would have merged with the
> dot on the i.
>
> <end quote>
>
> So the next time you see the "@" in an e-mail address, just be aware
> that somewhere...someplace, there is this little monkey hobbling around
> on one testicle. He wants to know where the other one is *at*! :-)
>
>
> Alan
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
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"While it is perfectly true that the early bird gets the worm, it is
equally true that the tardy mouse gets the cheese."
George Spelvin
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