What does the character mean in email. Dog symbol - where did the name of the @ sign come from and how did the dog icon appear in the email address and on the keyboard. The correct pronunciation of the @ sign

In Turkey - a rose, in Israel - a strudel, in the USA - a cat, and in our common people - a "dog". This is how they called the global symbol of the electronic box @, which replaced the address, paper and pen in our everyday life.

And where did such a funny squiggle with the letter “a” come from and why do we use it in our email addresses?

The origin of the symbol is shrouded in mystery and has given rise to dozens of theories. The Roman professor Giorgio Stabile in 2000 put forward an interpretation of the origin of the "dog", which refers to the letter of the merchant of the 16th century and the designation with the letter "a" with a curl 1 amphorae of selling wine.

• The American Berthold Ullman is sure that the “@” sign was invented by the monks of medieval orders and denoted Latin "ad"(symbol: "on", "in", "in connection with").
• If we take Spanish and French, then here the name "dogs" sounds like "arroba", that is old unit of weight equal to 15 kilograms and denoted by the symbol "@".
• The official name of the sign is "at" and takes its name from trade settlements. For example, 5 products @ (for) 2 UAH each. The symbol was used so often by merchants that it was decided to put it on the keyboards of typewriters, and from there it moved to our computers.

But the Internet "@" began to surf thanks to the inventor of soap - Ray Tomlinson. It was he who decided to assign a "dog" to the mail, since the sign could not be found in any other name or abbreviation. The first Internet mail address in history was: [email protected] Then the engineer did not even suspect what wild popularity the squiggle, which he chose as the main symbol, would acquire.

So why do we still have a "dog"?

And here, too, there is no definite version. Some believe that the symbol really looks like a puppy curled up. The latter are sure that the English "at" repeated more than once remotely resembles a deaf dog barking. And still others prove that almost all the characters in the word "dog" are somehow similar to "@". Although this theory raises significant doubts.

But here is the most popular version of the origin of our name for the designation of electronic soap associated with one of the first antediluvian computer games called "Adventure". Where one of the main characters is a funny dog ​​looking for treasures in a terrible labyrinth and designated precisely by the “@” symbol.

In fairness, it should be noted that we have a symbol, in addition to the beloved dog, they called it a frog, a kryakozyabra, a snail and even a lamb.

• In other countries, the fantasy played out even more. The Netherlands is a monkey tail, Denmark is a trunk, China is a mouse, Serbia is a crazy “A”, and creative Slovakia is “rollmops”, which means, you won’t believe it, a herring under a marinade. That's it.

Now you know where one of the most used symbols in the world came from, so similar to a cozy cute little animal.

With the advent of the Internet, the @ symbol, the so-called "dog", became known to everyone. It is on every computer and smartphone. The most common use of this sign appears when writing email.

Few people know how the sign "doggy" appeared, and that it was used several centuries before the Internet appeared. And certainly almost no one knows how this symbol is actually correctly called.

It is correct to call this dog in Russian the commercial “et”. The term appeared from the English name - commercial at. But pronouncing this long, correct sign name is difficult. Therefore, almost all languages ​​have colloquial notation for @. And all the names are somehow connected with food or animals.

Belarusians call our dog the word "slimak", which means "snail". And indeed, the similarity of @ with a snail is present. Ukrainians also call it "snail" - "ravlik". And also the Italians - "chiocciola".

The Jews came up with a tasty name for the symbol. In Hebrew, it is denoted by the word "strudel", that is, a roll.

Some people think the @ sign looks like a monkey. For example, in Bulgarian they say "monkey A", in German "klammeraffe", and in Polish "małpa". All this translates as "monkey".

The Turks call the dog “et”, which is translated from their language as “meat”. The Greeks call it "papaki" - a duck. And the Kazakhs are very surprised by the fantasy with the name “aykulak”, which translates as “ear of the moon”.

Closest to historical significance The @ symbol is in Spanish and French - arroba and arobase, respectively. These words denote a measure of weight.

How did the sign "doggy"

There are many hypotheses about the appearance and original meaning of the @ symbol. The most common is the appearance of the word "aroba", which meant a measure of weight in some languages ​​​​of Europe in the Middle Ages. And in trade documents, aroba was written with a sign similar to our modern @.

Aroba was equal to 11.5 kg (12.5 kg in some regions). In Europe, this word came from Arabic- "ar-rub", which means "a quarter", that is, one fourth of a hundred pounds.

There is another hypothesis about how the dog sign appeared. In the same Middle Ages, a similar symbol was used in Italy, which showed the volume. The @ sign denoted a volume equal to one amphora.

A similar symbol was also found in Russia. In the documents, the first letter of the alphabet "az" was beautifully painted, so that it became similar to @.

Modern name commercial "et" appeared in English economic documents. For example, 3 widgets @ $7 each = $21 means 3 items worth $7 each, for a total of $21.

And since the symbol was used in business, this inevitably led to the fact that it appeared on typewriters, and then on computer keys.

The very word "dog" for the @ symbol most likely came from the game Adventure, which had a dog character, denoted by the @ sign. And if you look closely, the sign really looks like a dog curled up.

The word "monkey" came about, most likely from owners of eight-bit zx-spectrum computers, some of which had a button that allowed programs to be written to disk. Usually this process corrupted the program, so it was called simian. Well, the button that started the process was denoted by the @ symbol.

As we know, in modern world"doggy" is most common in email writing. For example [email protected] can be understood as username on example.com. The character separates the username and domain name.

E-mail is used by almost everyone who, one way or another, is connected with computers. But few people wondered how the “@” symbol, used in an email address and popularly referred to as a “dog”, appeared.

The history of the "dog" goes back to 1971, when programmer Ray Tomlinson was working on a program for exchanging electronic messages and using the "@" symbol, which is not found in English names and last names.

Meanwhile, @ is a ligature (connection of letters) denoting "at". The exact origin of the symbol is not known, but according to one hypothesis, this is an abbreviation for the Latin ad. The name "commercial at" takes its origin from the accounts. Since the symbol was used in business, it was placed on the keyboards of typewriters, from where it migrated to the computer.

In Spanish, Portuguese and French, the name of the symbol comes from the word "arroba" - an old Spanish measure of weight, which was indicated by the @ sign when writing.

In the USSR, this sign was unknown before the advent of the computer, and got its name with the spread computer game, where, according to the scenario, the symbol "@" ran across the screen and denoted a dog. In addition, translated from the Tatar "et" means - "dog".

IN different countries the character is read differently. Here are some examples:

In the USA - at ("the at sign".)

In Bulgaria, klomba or maimunsko a ("monkey A").

In the Netherlands - apenstaartje ("monkey's tail").

In Italy they say "chiocciola" - a snail.

In Denmark and Norway they use "snabel-a" - "snout a".

In Taiwan, a mouse.

In Finland, the cat's tail.

In Greece - "little pasta".

In Hungary - a worm, a tick.

In Serbia - "crazy A".

In Sweden, an elephant.

In Vietnam - "twisted A".

In Ukraine - dog, doggie, tsutsenyatko (Ukrainian - puppy)

The "@" symbol has many uses these days. In addition to e-mail and other Internet services, the symbol is used in many programming languages.

In 2004, for the convenience of transferring e-mail addresses, the International Telecommunication Union introduced the code for the symbol @ (• - - • - •) into Morse code.

Comments

To be honest, I didn't know anything like that. very funny and interesting. in short, just super and thanks in advance for the top five

Everything is much less romantic. Moreover, it is technocratic. The name of this badge was given by electronic engineers at the dawn of Runet. "Dog" is called a part of the cam mechanism, which, due to its shape, very similar to this icon, allows the axes of the mechanism to rotate only in one direction, i.e. blocks them, like a dog not allowing you to pass.

Dub @ you, "technocrat" Alikberov. When @ was called a dog, there was no Runet yet. There was only e-mail... You probably crawled under the table on foot... The most obvious thing is that at really sounds like a dog barking. Programmers of the early 90s always had this opinion.

Alikberov Sergey, but to prove it?

Vasyatka, you read what is written: "... part of the mechanism ... similar to this badge ...". Have you seen cam mechanisms? And they, by the way, controlled the first Soviet ballistic missiles, representing a very reliable and noise-resistant unit. Oh, and you can still hear the barking of dogs ...

tell me how to make it so that the computer shows this dog, otherwise it doesn’t write a fig ... thanks in advance.

Please tell me HOW TO ENTER THIS DOG TO THE COMPUTER?

Everything has been disassembled. you have to press shift+2

thanks for peterky

I This... I'm at the expense of the mechanism..., the cam... in the Soviets... the language does not turn, rockets!!! And about the winder in the clock, knowledge is weak? A dog in mechanics IS A COMMA, however !!!

HOW TO MAKE THIS DOG?

so cool

And what was the name of this game with a dog (@) in the USSR?

In Indonesian, this icon is called E snail (E keong)

The dog icon familiar to every web user has been around for much longer than email. But it wasn't until the advent of the Internet that the rounded squiggle became widely known: 2 billion times a day @ takes its place between the sender's name and the server's domain name. Who and how guessed to put the dog icon in the mail address? And why a dog?

A long time ago, when (oh, horror!) There was no e-mail, no computers, not even electricity, all books were filled out by hand. No, then the dog badge was not written in the address, but it performed a completely noble function: it saved the time of clerks who painstakingly worked in the semi-darkness, half-bent position and holding the paper on their knees. Why in such an uncomfortable position remains a mystery. But if you imagine several hours in this position, and work with pen and ink, it becomes clear how much easier all kinds of ligatures made the work.

The dog icon is read in English as “At”, which is translated into Russian as “on, in, on”. This sign denoted belonging to something, was used in exchange accounts, and today more often indicate a specific place or event. In the Middle Ages, instead of "At", they used the preposition "Ad" - to, at, on, at, before. And the letter "d" was decorated with a long ponytail thrown to the left. The ligature @ was formed by the merger of the letters "a" and "d", and, by and large, the history of the creation of the dog icon is the history of medieval writing in Europe.

In Brazil, Spain and Portugal, a similar symbol denoted a measure of weight and volume equal to one arrobe. And although historians doubt that it was the same @, but the capital "A" with a curl, decorating jugs of wine or oil, really resembles an electronic "dog".

Before putting the dog icon, translate the keyboard into English. language. Then, while holding shift, press the number 2. If you are working in Word, open the insert - symbol - tab "characters", select "plain text - basic Latin". In Unicode, @ is denoted by the number 0040, and in Morse code by the character set: dot - dash - dash - dot - dash - dot.

Every European trader who lived during the Renaissance knew perfectly well how to write a dog badge in the most profitable way: a twisted elegant @ was located in front of the price of the goods, and was supposed to attract the attention of passers-by. Later, this ligature began to be used in accounting, for example: 12p @ $6 - 12 pieces for $6.

The following fact is not directly related to the dog icon, but is so curious that it would be wrong not to mention it. In the 15th century, when post offices were not even dreamed of in your hometown, letters were delivered by foot or horse messengers. They announced their arrival to the population by blowing a horn similar to that used by merchants, itinerant artists, etc. FROM late XVI- early 17th century horns were forbidden to be used by anyone except postmen. Today, the image of crossed post horns can be seen on envelopes, stamps, postcards, etc. A simple tool has become a symbol of mail, recognizable all over the world. So, the dog icon in the address is very reminiscent of the outline of a horn, which is undoubtedly a curious coincidence. And how interesting it turned out: the symbol

"virtual" mail accidentally repeated the outlines of the real mail symbol!

I am glad to welcome dear users on the page of my blog. Many jargons from the global network have tightly entered our lives. These memes include cake, trouble, life hack, trolling, and so on. However, among all the widespread and gaining popularity of Internet jargon in Runet, the first place is occupied by “dog”.

This icon, familiar to the entire Internet audience, has an official name - "commercial at", and it looks like this: @. On the web, it is used to designate an address. It separates the username from the hostname. Therefore, everyone who has visited any site at least once has come across it. At the same time, it is called differently in different countries:

• Holland - monkey and tail, in the original apenstaartje;
• Ukraine - doggie;
• Spain - arroba, which means a measure of weight;
• Italy - snail, the original word is chiocciola;
• PRC - mouse;
• Denmark - elephant trunk and other names;
• Germany - the tail or ear of a monkey;
• Israel - strudel.

This is only a small part of the names of the @ symbol in different countries, and in Russia it is a "dog" for most users. Despite the fame, few people know why the "dog" is called that. The symbol is called so all the time, when, for example, they dictate their email address in a personal conversation or on the phone. All people have long been accustomed to this. Therefore, the other interlocutor understands everything and correctly writes down the voiced email address.

An exception may be a foreigner, who is more likely to go into a stupor, unless he lives in Russia or constantly communicates with Russian people. The thing is that the @ sign is called "dog" exclusively by Russian-speaking users. The history of the appearance of this symbol in the addresses of electronic mailboxes and on the “clave” of a computer is also interesting. This is what I will talk about next.

The correct pronunciation of the @ sign

Almost always, Russians pronounce the word "dog" when dictating their email address. It still represents the main official channel for contacts. The popularity of email is not affected even by a large number of instant messengers from different developers. Through e-mail, users often send official letters and exchange various media files, including photos and short videos.

When an e-mail address is transmitted verbally, it is at this point that the so-called "dog" problem appears. At the same time, it is absent when writing an email on paper or when it is transmitted using an SMS message. The problem is that the word "dog" is in certain situations like a curse. Therefore, many people have to think before pronouncing it. At the same time, some of them have a question: “why does the @ sign have such a name?”.

To fully answer this question, you need to understand everything in order. So, the @ symbol is really commonly called a "dog". Confirmation of this jargon is the use of this word both on television and in the press. However, the media is not always a role model for expressing one's thoughts and even behavior. Therefore, everyone needs to know how the @ symbol is officially called, so that if necessary, you can quickly convey to the interlocutor what you have in mind if, for example, he is a foreigner.

At the official level, the @ sign correctly sounds like "at". English-speaking users designate it with the word "at". This is where the pronunciation comes from. And in English given word is a suggestion. Translated into Russian, it can have different meaning. It directly depends on the constructed phrase. Therefore, in standard encodings, the symbol "dog" is specified as "commercial at".

English "at" translated into Russian means location. However, it can still be used as a preposition, for example, "in", "by", "on", and in some cases the given English word can be used as "about". In connection with this translation, the @ symbol was chosen to denote electronic addresses. And then everything falls into place. So, having an email address, for example, it can be sorted into pieces: a user whose name is 12751013, on the mail.ru server.

However, we need to return to the question: “why is at commercial?”. Because some of the most meticulous accountants in the world, the British began to use the @ symbol as an abbreviation of the preposition "at" several centuries ago when compiling accounting documentation. For example, 11 rolls of fabric @ 2000 rubles = 22000 rubles. In other words, 11 rolls of 2000 rubles. will cost 22,000 rubles. This is why at is commonly considered a commercial pretext.

Its use has become so commonplace that with the invention of typewriters on such devices, the @ symbol has gained its own place in the row of numbers and punctuation marks. Subsequently, with the advent of personal computers, which inherited the layout from typewriters, the “dog” sign also began to be used on the keyboard. Now you know the path from the appearance of the @ symbol to the beginning of its use in designating electronic addresses that appeared in the 2nd half of the 20th century.

So anyway, why was "dog" chosen to split the email address? Here we need to clarify that this symbol is used not only in email, but also when writing a URL. In the latter case, @ is used to separate the username and password from the address of a particular page. However, this way of writing URLs is rarely used.

The @ sign has also found its place on Twitter. See him in this social network, which is a popular thumbnail blogging, is possible when a reply message is being typed. This symbol in without fail is written before the name of the responding user. After that, he migrated to modern templates for forums and other social platforms.

It was already mentioned earlier that using @ when writing an email address is quite logical in connection with the meaning of the preposition at. In other words, a person can voice their email like this: ivanov on mail.ru. This pronunciation of the email address does not contradict any rules and is 100% correct!

It is worth noting that the programmer Tomlinson came up with the idea of ​​recording email in the form it has now. This designation first appeared in 1971. The @ symbol separated the username from the server.

When the Russian layout is used on the computer, then in order to write "dogs" it is first necessary to switch to English language. This action is performed using special keys. For such purposes, the combination Shift + ALT is used. Shift + Control is also often used. In addition, switching can be done by clicking the language icon on the taskbar, selecting the desired layout.

Why is the name "dog" chosen?

There are various versions of why it is customary to call the @ sign in Runet a “dog”:

1. The symbol is very much like a dog curled up.
2. The abrupt pronunciation of "at" is a bit like a dog barking.
3. If you strain your imagination and carefully look at the outline of the sign, then you can see almost all the letters that are necessary to write the word "dog". The exception is "k".

In addition to these options, there is one legend. It has romantic overtones. So, many decades ago, when the first computers were large devices with displays that were exclusively text, people played the game "Adventure" ( English name Adventure). In it, users went through a maze created by the PC. They needed to find treasures, while killing various creatures living underground.

Symbols such as "-", "+" and "!" were used to draw the labyrinth on the monitor. At the same time, to designate the player, treasures and monsters, they used different signs and letters. The game was also attended by a dog, which was a faithful assistant to the playing person. He usually performed reconnaissance in the maze at the player's command. But it was the @ symbol that was used to designate it.

This legend is silent about whether it is the reason for the appearance of the name "dog" for the @ sign. It is also worth mentioning that among Russian-speaking users this symbol is also called:

• frog;
• ram;
• dog;
• bun;

The familiar name of the @ sign in Russia appeared in the 80s of the XX century. At this time, the computerization of the population began in the country. During this period, people in Russia began to gradually get to know what e-mail is. And those were only selected users.

Instead of a conclusion

To understand exactly why the sign "dog" is so called, none of us today can be 100% able to recognize. Time is lost and tails will not be found. The name of the @ symbol has already become a tradition: I say it because everyone says it. Should we continue to use this name? Some may strongly disagree with this. Some, on the contrary, believe that the name "dog" makes us all mysterious personalities in the eyes of users from other countries, with the exception of the CIS countries (perhaps only for the time being).

However, foreigners are also not far behind us. Instead of "et", they use some of their own name, for example, snail. In many countries, users associate the @ symbol with an animal, in other states - with a herring roll or a delicious strudel.

But you, my readers, will now know exactly what is hidden behind the little squiggle in your e-mail address.