|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1
stranger
|
OP
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?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 137
member
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618
addict
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
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 ĥ 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)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
|
|
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#).
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
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  !
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,345
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
1 members (wofahulicodoc),
889
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
