The @ symbol and Amen

[RandomAlias]

Short video on the history and culture surrounding the @ symbol.

The first recorded use was in 1345, where the @ sign is the first letter in the word “Amen.”

https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/elephants-trunk-the-story-of-the-sign/p05tcymd?playlist=favourites

 

[BartholomewB]

I’m prepared to believe the BBC may be giving correct information about the medieval origin of the @ sign, but I’m deeply suspicious about the term “asperand” and the highly doubtful claim that it’s “the official name” of the sign. First of all, what person or persons has been empowered, and by whom, to proclaim that the sign has an “official name” at all? Second, the term doesn’t appear in any Merriam-Webster or Oxford dictionary that I’ve seen, either online or in print. It smells like something that someone just made up and is hoping will catch on. Of course, we’re all entitled to do that, but that doesn’t make it “official.”

 

[RandomAlias]

You can call me at. You can call me each. Just don’t call me late for supper.

You are right, the term “asperand” is quite rare and its origin appears to be obscure. Perhaps the need to name it was overlooked because it is not used as punctuation (for organizing or clarifying the written word), but only as an accounting symbol, abbreviation, or email address separator. It seems to be called by many names in different languages.

 

[BartholomewB]

In some Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries the @ sign is read as “arroba,” a unit in the old pre-metric system of weights and measures, corresponding roughly to a bushel. Oddly enough, Brazilian typewriters always had it as a symbol on one of the keys, even though it had long fallen into disuse as the sign for “arroba” – and long before it came back into use with the advent of the internet.