Since the advent of e-mail, we have become accustomed to the symbol “@” and regard it as a simple character, perhaps never considering its origins.
The origin of “@” likely dates back to the Middle Ages, a time when documents and contracts were recorded in Latin.
In Latin, there existed the preposition “ad” (equivalent to “at” in modern English). When monks of that era wrote this preposition “ad” in texts, the letter “d” would often have a small hook or tail attached, resembling the number 6 viewed in a mirror. Thus, writing the entire word “ad” would look very similar to the “@” symbol we use today.
Furthermore, in the 15th century, “@” appeared in the documents of merchants of that time. It was an abbreviation for a unit of measurement – “arroba” (equivalent to 11.52 kg). It’s worth noting that this unit was commonly used to weigh cattle or pigs.
During the Renaissance, “@” was used as a symbol representing prices. By the Industrial Revolution (a period marked by the rise of capitalism and the advent of machinery), “@” frequently appeared in accounting documents, summarizing income and expenses, holding an important position alongside symbols like $, #, and %.
And “@” might have remained “quietly” in the background if it hadn’t caught the eye of Ray Tomlinson, a researcher at BBN Technologies in the United States.
In the history of the Internet, Tomlinson is regarded not only as the father of e-mail but also recognized as the “owner” of the “@” symbol. At that time, BBN Technologies was involved in the ARPANet project, the precursor to today’s Internet, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense.
In the project, Tomlinson’s main task was to design mailboxes for communication between computers. One fine day, while working with a model 33 Teletype keyboard, Tomlinson suddenly had the idea to search for a special symbol. A symbol that could not be found in any names, and at the same time, this symbol could separate the user’s name from the computer’s name. It had to be a composite symbol: name – symbol – location.
At that time, after 1971, the “@” symbol was present on the keyboard and located on the second row from the left. Tomlinson made the most astute decision of his life, a decision that would go down in history: the character “@” was chosen. According to him, this character met all the conditions he had set forth.
It is also interesting that in different countries, “@” is referred to by various names that carry different meanings.
For example: in South Korea, “@” means “snail”; in Finland – “sleeping cat”; in Russia – “puppy”; in Belgium – “screw”; or in Switzerland – “wafer”…
