@: what is the name of this symbol?

"Arroba" is what I know it as. Thing is, arroba is the Portuguese name for it, and is also an old Spanish and Portuguese unit of measure.

Because the translation of "arroba" (to English) is to simply use it exactly like that for the unit of measure I'm not sure if the symbol's name translates like that as well.

So now I don't know whether it's also "arroba" in English.

If anyone knows I'd like to know as well.

I've been trying to find the answer to kickycan's question--in vain. I did look up "arroba" in English, but the word is defined as a unit of weight, as Craven suggests, but there's no mention of the "@".

Now I'm really curious!

Some names in different languages (and a link to more) are to be found here:

From Whence Comes The At Sign @ ?

I've never seen a reference to it in English as "Arroba".

But then again I've never seen it as anything but "at" or "about" or "around" either.

"Arroba" is all I know. A pity I know it in Portuguese but not my first language.

Wow, Walter, I read most of that article, and clearly there's no simple answer to what to call the "@" in English. I was particularly intrigued by the mention of ligatures, those typographic combinations of two letters, such as "fl" (can't reproduce here, but the top of the "l" flows into the curved top of the "f"). This may, indeed, explain the origin of the "@" as combination of "a" and "d". Heady stuff!

I don't know that it has a true name. Any place I've looked it's referred to as the "At" symbol.

http://www.herodios.com/herron_tc/atsign.html

In The Unicode Standard (ver. 4.0), it is called "COMMERCIAL AT" (U+0040).

OK, Kickycan, you've just used up about an hour of my evening. This is the best i could find, but i consider it to be the most comprehensive of all the (literally) hundreds of sites i visited:

A Natural History of the @ Sign [/b][/color]

Wow, thanks! I didn't think there would be any wackos on here like me who would actually be interested in what the @ symbol means. Thanks for the links. I might be nuts, but that was interesting. Now, does anyone know how the hell to pronounce "apesturtsje"?

later

fascinating!

Apesturtsje is Frisian, simular to low German and Dutch - so anyone knowing these languages should be able to pronounce it.

Since pronounciation doesn't include the knowledge of how to explain this in English, I can't unfortunately do that online :wink:

Some more national names on this Swiss (in German) website:
http://www.viip.ch/de/infostube/html-infostube/at-geschichte.html
(The languages should to be recognized :wink: )

It's an amphora.

Jespah, the "@" is an "amphora"? Couldn't find that definition for the word in my American Heritage College Dictionary, which only defines it as a two-handled Greek or Roman jar. I'll try my bigger dictionary when I get home...

Oscar.

I can't recall where I saw it defined as an amphora (might have been Nat. Geo.), but I do recall the term.

Okay. Before you have decided, I'd call it "monkey ear".

I found this:

@
Afrikaans - In South Africa, it is called aapstert, meaning "monkey's tail"
Arabic - The @ symbol does not appear on Arabic keyboards, only keyboards in both Arabic and English. The Arabic word for @ is fi, the Arabic translation of at
Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian - In these countries, it is referred to as the "Crazy I"
Cantonese - In Hong Kong it is generally referred to as "the at sign," just as in England and America
Catalan - In Catalonia, it is called arrova, a unit of weight
Czech - In the Czech Republic, it is called zavinac, meaning "rollmop," or "pickled herring"
Danish - It is called alfa-tegn, meaning "alpha-sign" or snabel-a, meaning "elephant's trunk" or grisehale, meaning "pig's tail"
Dutch - Since English is prominent in the Netherlands, the English "at" is commonly used. However, the Dutch also call it apestaart, meaning monkey's tail," apestaartje, meaning "little monkey's tail" or slingeraap, meaning "swinging monkey"
French - In France, it is called arobase the name of the symbol. It is also referred to as un a commercial, meaning "business a", a enroule, meaning "coiled a", and sometimes escargot, meaning "snail" or petit escargot, meaning "little snail"
German - In Germany, it is called Affenschwanz, meaning "monkey's tail" or Klammeraffe, meaning "hanging monkey"
Greek - In Greece, it is called papaki, meaning "little duck"
Hebrew - It is shablul or shablool, meaning "snail" or a shtrudl, meaning "strudel"
Hungarian - In Hungary, it is called a kukac, meaning "worm" or "maggot"
Italian - In Italy it is called chiocciola, meaning "snail" and a commerciale, meaning "business a"
Japanese - In Japan, it is called atto maaku, meaning "at mark"
Mandarin Chinese - In Taiwan it is called xiao lao-shu, meaning "little mouse," lao shu-hao, meaning "mouse sign," at-hao, meaning "at sign" or lao shu-hao, meaning "mouse sign"
Norwegian - In Norway, it is called either grisehale, meaning "pig's tail" or kro/llalfa, meaning "curly alpha." In academia, the English term "at" is widely used
Polish - In Poland, it is called malpa, meaning "monkey." It is also called kotek, meaning "little cat" and ucho s'wini, meaning "pig's ear"
Portuguese - In Portugal it is called arroba, a unit of weight
Romanian - In Romania, it is called la, a direct translation of English "at"
Russian - Russians officially call it a kommercheskoe, meaning "commercial a", but it is usually called sobachka, meaning "little dog"
Spanish -- Like in Portugal, in Spain it is called arroba, a unit of weight
Swedish - The official term in Sweden is snabel-a, meaning "trunk-a," or "a with an elephant's trunk"
Thai - There is no official word for it in Thai, but it is often called ai tua yiukyiu, meaning "the wiggling worm-like character"
Turkish - In Turkey, most e-mailers call it kulak, meaning "ear"

---And I thought it was just called the "at" sign.