#16284
01/21/2001 7:00 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1 |
I am having an argument with a friend about the names of some ASCII symbols. For instance, I know the "and symbol" - & - is called an ampersand. My question is: Do the "at symbol" - @ - and "number sign" - # - have names? Also, do any other commonly used symbols have less commonly used names?
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#16285
01/22/2001 5:47 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 137
member
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member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 137 |
# is sometimes refered to as the pound sign. I used to think @ meant about or around, in my youth before computers.
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#16286
01/22/2001 7:03 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618 |
I always assumed the # was simply the hash. The pound sign is the £, I think. I don't know about many others, but I'd be interested to find out.
Rapport was established superficially.
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#16287
01/22/2001 7:14 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
There is plenty of previous discussion on # - hash/pound. I can't recall a name for @, though, other than "at".
I suppose its presence on the keyboard and its relative lack of use made it perfect for e-mail. Otherwise we'd all be xyz~adjklj.fjioh (~ is tilde, I think).
Gurunet reports the following:
Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon describe how the @ sign got there:
Tomlinson....became better known for a brilliant (he called it obvious) decision he made while writing [the e-mail] programs. He needed a way to separate, in the e-mail address, the name of the user from the machine the user was on. How should that be denoted? He wanted a character that would not, under any circumstances, be found in the user's name. He looked down at the keyboard he was using, a Model 33 Teletype, which almost everyone else on the Net used, too. In addition to the letters and numerals there were about a dozen punctuation marks. "I got there first, so I got to choose any punctuation I wanted," Tomlinson said. "I chose the @ sign." The character also had the advantage of meaning "at" the designated institution. He had no idea he was creating an icon for the wired world.
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#16288
01/22/2001 2:30 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Not sure how old that name is. Back in th 70s we called it hatch. ! was bang.
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#16289
01/22/2001 3:23 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
the lads at Bell Labs thought that # should have a more distinctive name than the various pound, hash, (cross)hatch, sharp, etc. and came up with octothorpe (from its eight points and some guy named Thorpe). it hasn't caught on.
the paragraph mark ¶ is called a 'pilcrow'
the squiggle under a ç is a 'cedilla' (as in façade)
@ is more formally called the 'commercial at'
µ is the 'micron'
other names for the slash (/) are 'virgule' and 'solidus'
the backslash (\) is, of course, the 'reverse solidus'
and, finally, an old word for the ? mark is 'eroteme' (ER uh teem)
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#16290
01/22/2001 4:13 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
I don't know what the situation is north of the border, but here the telephone company, both the hard-wired and the cellular types, seem to have given a sort of official status to "star" for * and "pound" for #. You will hear call-back info. advising you to enter "star 69" or "pound 77" on a cell phone, and very frequently voicemail programs tell you, for instance, "Enter your telephone number followed by the pound sign." or "To end this call, press the star key."
The @ has always, so far as I know, been called "at". Before computers, it was for use in commercial contexts (hence the name "commercial 'at'") like "6 dinglefoofs @ .50" on invoices or similar documents.
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#16291
01/22/2001 6:12 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Interestingly, in Spanish one never says "at" (or its Spanish equivalent..) for @. It is called an "arroba," which is also unit of measure (for both weight and liquid) that I have never heard used - my Spanish dictionary says it varies in weight from 24-2- to 36 pounds, by region, which would explain why it ain't used much.
There seems to be a parallel here, with these odd typographical symbols given names having to do with weight (# and pound and @ and arroba), perhaps because they were used as shorthand for the units (as when one sees a weight as 20#).
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#16292
01/22/2001 6:15 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
My Depression-era mother also utilizes the @ symbol to denote "each". Seems like a dated usage to me.
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#16293
01/22/2001 7:33 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
The @ means "circa"(approximately). I was very disappointed to find out that I can't use it as such in close proximity to any other typing because the "word processor" automatically assumes I'm noting an e-mail address and subsequently underlines it and changes the text color... ... I've been subsequently reappointed  !
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#16294
01/22/2001 10:02 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 144
member
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member
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 144 |
used as shorthand for the units (as when one sees a weight as 20#).
_________________________________________
Ah, but there's an instant regional problem here:
In the UK, I have never seen a weight listed as 20#, but always as 20lb. Likewise, I have always seen # referred to as 'hash'.
I suspect that this comes back to our currency being the pound, as indicated by the '£' symbol, and that as a result it would be confusing to give the same name to anything else.
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#16295
01/23/2001 12:11 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
In French Québec most people call the @ "commercial A." Arroba is sometimes used by people, usually those trying to speak 'proper' French, but whomever they are talking to usually says "what" over and over until the person says "commercial A, alright, it means commercial A!" so the second person usually says "well, why didn’t you say so." Pretty aggressive lot, I’d say  . In English we just say AT and save all the hoopla.
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#16296
01/23/2001 1:05 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Re @
In the dear dead days beyond recall when I was in school we were taught the @ stood for at as in "prices for each unit."
3 lipsticke @ $1 total $3.
wow
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#16297
01/23/2001 1:06 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Re @
In the dear dead days beyond recall when I was in school we were taught the @ stood for at as in "prices for each unit."
3 lipsticks @ $1 total $3.
wow
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#16298
01/23/2001 4:05 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
re: My Depression-era mother also utilizes the @ symbol to denote "each".
I think you'll find she's simply shortened another commercial symbol. Not available on keyboard, so described as 'ea' with the a's tail looping around both letters. Very common in fruit shops in the days when they had hand written price signs stapled to broken off bits of wooden apple boxes.
stales
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#16299
01/23/2001 5:24 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
wooden apple boxesAhh. The first apple icon
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#16300
01/23/2001 5:47 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
The first apple icon
Good one, mav!
That reminds me--what is an applet, please?
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#16301
01/23/2001 6:16 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
I believe that "applet" comes from the computer term, "application," meaning a software program. An applet is a mini-program.
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#16302
01/23/2001 8:27 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 163
member
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member
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 163 |
Some months ago Newsweek published a short article about the different names other countries gave to the symbol ‘@’.
I have forgotten most words but I remember that some of them were quite curious. I am not sure but I think that the Chinese or the Russian called it ‘the mouse’. Actually, if I try, I can see a long tail and a small body on it.
As Hyla wrote, we in Spain call it “arroba” and nobody knows who named it this way. “Arroba” is an old weight measure scarcely used today, I remember my grandfather using it referring to pigs. Some years ago a few humorists started calling it “algarroba” (carob pod) -BTW, a common feed for pigs- and now, what started as a joke, is used by a considerable number of people.
Regarding ‘#’ people try to avoid referring to it because nobody knows exactly how to call it. The most popular word is “almohadillita” (small cushion) but some people say “libra” (pound) or “chirobita” (small hump) or “rejillita” (small grate).
It would be interesting knowing how other cultures refer to those symbols.
Juan Maria.
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#16303
01/24/2001 3:23 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
I thought I'd mentioned this before, but I couldn't find it again, so:
A poll of my Indonesian colleagues reveals that in English they call it the at sign, and read it as at. In Indonesian they read it as at, but call it variously "a kurung" (caged or bracketed a), "a keong" (snail a), or "a kura-kura" (turtle or tortoise a).
Bingley
Bingley
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