In the 1990s, when they first tried to translate the @ icon into Russian, there were many equal variants - “krakozyabra”, “squiggle”, “frog”, “ear” and others. True, at present they have practically disappeared, but “dog” has spread throughout the Runet and remains, because any language strives to have only one universal word to denote anything. The remaining names remain marginal, although there may be a lot of them. For example, in English, the @ symbol is called not only by the words commercial at, but also mercantile symbol, commercial symbol, scroll, arobase, each, about, etc. Where did the association between the main computer icon and a person’s friend come from? For many people, the @ symbol really does resemble a curled up dog.
There is an exotic version that the abrupt pronunciation of English at can resemble the barking of a dog. However, a much more likely hypothesis connects our symbol with a very old computer game called Adventure. In it you had to travel through a labyrinth, fighting various unpleasant underground creatures. Since the game was text-based, the player himself, the walls of the labyrinth, monsters and treasures were designated by various symbols (for example, the walls were made up of “!”, “+” and “-”). The player in Adventure was accompanied by a dog who could be sent on reconnaissance missions. It was designated by the @ symbol. Perhaps it was thanks to this now forgotten computer game that the name “dog” took root in Russia.
In today's world, the @ sign is everywhere, especially since it has become an integral part of the email address. But this symbol, long before the computer era, was part of the layout of the standard American typewriter, and became a computer symbol only because it was used relatively little. The @ icon is used in commercial calculations - meaning “at the rate”. Let's say 10 gallons of oil at $3.95/gallon would be written 10 gal of oil @ $3.95/gal. In English-speaking countries, the symbol is also used in science to mean “at”: for example, a density of 1.050 g/cm at 15 °C would be written: 1.050 g/cm @ 15 °C. In addition, the @ sign is loved and often used by anarchists due to its similarity to their symbol - “A in a circle.”
However, its original origin is shrouded in mystery. According to the linguist Ullman, the @ symbol was invented by medieval monks to shorten the Latin ad ("on", "in", "in relation to", etc.), which closely resembles its current use. Another explanation is given by the Italian scientist Giorgio Stabile - he discovered this symbol in the records of the Florentine merchant Francesco Lapi for 1536 in the meaning of “amphora”: for example, the price of one @ wine. It is interesting that the Spaniards and Portuguese call the symbol in emails exactly “amphora” (arroba) - a word that the French, having distorted, turned into arobase. However, in different countries there are a variety of names for the @ symbol, most often zoological. The Poles call it "monkey", the Taiwanese - "mouse", the Greeks - "duck", Italians and Koreans - "snail", Hungarians - "worm", Swedes and Danes - "elephant trunk", Finns - "cat's tail" or " sign of meow,” and Armenians, like us, signify “doggie.” There are gastronomic names - “strudel” in Israel and “rolmops” (marinated herring) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In addition, this symbol is often simply called a "crooked A", or "A with a curl", or, like the Serbs, a "nutty A". However, the most amazing modern story related to the @ symbol occurred in China, where the sign is tritely called “A in a circle.” A few years ago, a Chinese couple gave this name to their newborn. Perhaps the sign began to be perceived as a hieroglyph symbolizing technical progress, and they decided that it would bring happiness and success to the young inhabitant of the Middle Power.
Some figures in the Internet space call this symbol “one of the main pop symbols of our time, a sign of our common communication space.” Somewhat pompous, in my opinion, but the worldwide recognition of this symbol, and, as is sometimes even noted, “canonization” is evidenced by the following fact. In February 2004, the International Telecommunication Union introduced a Morse code for the @ symbol (. - - . - .) to facilitate the transmission of email addresses. The code combines the Latin letters A and C and reflects their joint graphic writing.
The search for the origins of the @ symbol takes us back at least to the 15th century, and perhaps even further, although linguists and paleographers still disagree on this issue.
Professor Giorgio Stabile put forward this hypothesis. A 16th-century document written by a Florentine merchant mentioned “the price of one A of wine” (possibly an amphora). At the same time, the letter A, according to the then tradition, was decorated with a curl and looked like @. American scientist Berthold Ullman suggested that the @ sign was invented by medieval monks to shorten the Latin word “ad”, which was often used as a universal word meaning “on”, “in”, “in relation to”, etc. In Spanish, Portuguese, and French, the name of the symbol comes from the word “arroba” - an old Spanish measure of weight, ca. 15 kg., which is abbreviated in writing as the @ sign.
The modern official name of the symbol "commercial at" takes its origin from bills, for example, 7 widgets @ $2 each = $14, which translates to 7 pieces. 2$ = 14$. Since this symbol was used in business, it was placed on typewriter keyboards and from there migrated to the computer.
We owe the spread of this symbol across the Internet to the forefather of email, Tomlinson. He was the same person who chose the @ symbol. When asked much later why he chose this particular icon, he replied simply: “I was looking for a character on the keyboard that could not appear in any name and cause confusion.”
Tomlinson needed such a symbol during the period when he was working on creating a messaging system on the Arpanet network (the ancestor of the Internet). Essentially, he had to come up with a new addressing scheme that would identify not only the recipients, but also the computers on which their mailboxes were located. To do this, Tomlinson needed a separator, and his, in general, random choice fell on the @ sign. The first network address was tomlinson@bbn-tenexa.
In Russia, users most often call the “@” symbol “dog,” which is why e-mail addresses derived from personal names and surnames sometimes take on an unexpected connotation. It is curious that this symbol is used in their work by both folk talents (for example, the joke: “The dog is missing, don’t offer @”), and official jokers - KVN players (for example, “ [email protected]"). But still: why “dog”?
There are several versions of the origin of this funny name.
Firstly, the icon really does look like a curled up dog.
Secondly, the abrupt sound of the English “at” is a bit like a dog barking.
Thirdly, with a fair amount of imagination, you can see in the outline of the symbol almost all the letters included in the word “dog”, well, with the exception of “k”.
But the most romantic is the following legend: “A long time ago, when computers were large and displays were exclusively text-based, there lived a popular game with the simple name “Adventure.” Its point was to travel through a computer-generated labyrinth in search of treasures and battles with harmful underground creatures. In this case, the labyrinth on the screen was drawn with the symbols “!”, “+” and “-”, and the player, treasures and hostile monsters were designated by various letters and icons. Moreover, according to the plot, the player had a faithful assistant - a dog, who could be sent into the catacombs for reconnaissance. And it was, of course, indicated by the @ sign.”
Whether this was the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, on the contrary, the icon was chosen because it was already called that way - the legend is silent about this.
To be fair, it should be noted that in Russia “dog” is also called doggie, frog, bun, ear, ram and even muck. In other countries, this symbol is associated with various objects.
Below is a far from complete list of how the “@” symbol is called in other countries.
- Bulgaria - "klomba" or "maymunsko a" (monkey A)
- Netherlands - "apenstartje" (monkey tail)
- Israel - "strudel" (swirl)
- Spain, France, Portugal - "arroba", "arrobase" (measure of weight)
- Germany - monkey tail, monkey ear, monkey, paper clip
- Italy - chiocciola" (snail)
- Denmark, Norway, Sweden - “snabel-a” (snout a) or elephant trunk (a with trunk)
- Czech Republic, Slovakia - rollmops (marinated herring)
- America is a cat
- China, Taiwan - mouse
- Türkiye - rosette
- Serbia - “crazy a” or maimun (monkey)
- Vietnam - "crooked a"
- Ukraine - “ravlik” (snail), “doggie” or “doggie”, “mavpochka” (monkey)
- Poland, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Holland - "malpa" (monkey)
- Finland - cat's tail
- Greece - not enough pasta
- Hungary - worm, mite
- Latvia - "et"
- Russia - besides the dog - a dog, a frog, a bun, an ear and a quacker.
As you can see, for many peoples the @ sign evokes an association with a comfortably nestled animal, for some with a delicious strudel or herring roll, the poetic Turks compared it to a flower, but the disciplined Japanese use the English “attomark” without any poetic comparisons.
I am glad to welcome dear users to my blog page. Many jargons from the global network have become a part of our lives. Such memes include kek, trouble, life hack, trolling, and so on. However, among all the common and increasingly popular Internet jargons in RuNet, “dog” ranks first.
This icon, familiar to the entire Internet audience, has an official name - “commercial at”, and it looks like this: @. On the network it is used to indicate an address. It is used to separate the username and hostname. Therefore, everyone who has visited any website at least once has come across it. However, it is called differently in different countries:
This is only a small part of the names of the @ symbol in different countries, and in Russia for most users it is a “dog”. Despite its fame, few people know why “dog” is called that. The symbol is called this way 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 announced email address.
An exception may be a foreigner, who is likely to be stunned unless he lives in Russia or constantly communicates with Russian people. The whole point 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 “keyboard” of the computer is also interesting. This is exactly what I will talk about next.
Russians almost always say the word “dog” when they dictate their email address. It continues to represent the main official channel for contacts. Even a large number of instant messengers from different developers does not affect the popularity of email. Using email, users often send official letters and exchange various media files, including photos and short videos.
When an email address is transmitted verbally, it is at this moment that the so-called “dog” problem appears. However, it is absent when writing an email on paper or when sending it via SMS message. The problem is that the word “dog” is like a curse word in certain situations. Therefore, many people have to think twice 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 called a “dog”. This jargon is confirmed by 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 your interlocutor what you mean if, for example, he is a foreigner.
At the official level, the @ sign is correctly pronounced as “eth”. English-speaking users refer to it as “at”. This is where the pronunciation comes from. Moreover, in English this word is a preposition. Translated into Russian, it can have different meanings. This directly depends on the phrase constructed. Therefore, in standard encodings, the character “dog” is indicated as “commercial at”.
The English “at” translated into Russian means location. However, it can also be used as a preposition, for example, “in”, “by”, “on”, and in some cases this English word can be used as “about”. Due to this translation, the @ symbol was chosen to represent email addresses. And here everything falls into place. So, having an email address, for example, [email protected], it can be broken down: a user whose name is 12751013 on the mail.ru server.
However, we need to return to the question: “why is at commercial?” Because the British, one of the most meticulous accountants in the world, began to use the @ symbol as an abbreviation of the preposition “at” when preparing accounting documents several centuries ago. For example, 11 rolls of fabric @ 2000 rubles = 22000 rubles. In other words, 11 rolls for 2000 rubles. will cost 22,000 rubles. This is why at is generally considered a commercial pretext.
Its use became so commonplace that with the invention of typewriters on such devices, the @ symbol received its own place among 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 email addresses that appeared in the 2nd half of the 20th century.
So, after all, for what reason was “dog” chosen to share 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 login and password from the address of a specific page. However, this method of writing URLs is rarely used.
The @ sign also found a home on Twitter. You can see it on this social network, which is a popular miniature blogging, when a reply message is being typed. This symbol must be written before the name of the responding user. After that, it migrated to modern templates for forums and other social platforms.
It was mentioned earlier that the use of @ when writing an email address is quite logical in connection with the meaning of the preposition at. In other words, a person can voice his email as follows: ivanov on mail.ru. This pronunciation of the email address does not contradict any rules and is 100% correct!
It is worth noting that it was the programmer Tomlinson who came up with the idea of recording email in the form it is now. This designation first appeared in 1971. Using the @ symbol, the username was separated from the server.
When the Russian layout is used on the computer, then to write “dog” you must first switch to English. This action is performed using special keys. For such purposes, use the combination Shift + ALT. Shift + Control is also often used. In addition, switching can be done by clicking the language icon on the taskbar and selecting the desired layout.
There are different versions of why it is customary to call the @ sign “dog” in RuNet:
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 all text, people played the game "Adventure" (English name "Adventure"). In it, users went through a maze created by a PC. They needed to find treasures while killing various creatures living underground.
Symbols such as “-”, “+” and “!” were used to draw the maze on the monitor. At the same time, different signs and letters were used to designate the player, treasures and monsters. The game also included a dog, who was the faithful assistant of the person playing. He usually carried out reconnaissance in the maze at the player's command. But it was the @ symbol that was used to denote 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:
The familiar name for the @ sign in Russia appeared in the 80s of the 20th century. At this time, computerization of the population began in the country. During this period, people in Russia began to gradually become familiar with what e-mail is. And then these were exclusively selected users.
None of us today will be able to 100% understand exactly why the “dog” sign is called that. Time is lost and the tails will not be found. The name of the @ symbol has already become a tradition: I say this because everyone says it. Should we continue to use this name? Some may fundamentally disagree with this. Some people, on the contrary, believe that the name “dog” makes us all mysterious individuals 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 “this,” they use some of their own names, for example, snail. In many countries, users associate the @ symbol with an animal, in other countries - 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.
On the Internet, the @ symbol is used as a separator between the username and the host (domain) name in email address syntax.
Some Internet personalities call this symbol “one of the main pop symbols of our time, a sign of our common communication space.” Evidence of the worldwide recognition of this symbol can be considered the fact that in February 2004, the International Telecommunication Union introduced a code for the @ symbol (. - - . - .) into Morse code. It combines the codes of the Latin letters A and C, which reflects their joint graphic writing.
The history of the @ symbol
Thanks to the research of the Italian researcher Giorgio Stabile, a document was discovered in the archives of the Institute of Economic History of Prato near Florence, where this sign was found in writing for the first time. The document turned out to be a letter from a Florentine merchant dated 1536, which spoke of three merchant ships arriving in Spain. Their cargo included containers of wine, marked with the symbol "@".
After analyzing data on wine prices and the capacity of medieval vessels and comparing them with the system of measures of that time, the scientist came to the conclusion that the “@” sign was used as a measuring unit replacing the word “anfora”, that is, “amphora”. (This is what the universal measure of volume has been called since antiquity).
American scientist Berthold Ullman suggested that the @ sign was invented by medieval monks to shorten the Latin word “ad”, which was often used as a universal word meaning “on”, “in”, “in relation to”, etc.
In Spanish, Portuguese, and French, the name of the symbol comes from the word “arroba” - an old Spanish measure of weight, ca. 15 kg, which is abbreviated in writing as the @ sign.
The modern official name of this symbol is “ commercial at" comes from accounts where it was used in contexts like this: 7 widgets @ $2 each = $14, which translates to 7 widgets. $2 = $14 Since this symbol was used in business, it was placed on typewriter keyboards. He was already present on the first typewriter in history, Underwood, released in 1885. 80 years later, computer keyboards have taken over.
In the official history of the Internet, it is generally accepted that the appearance of “@” in an electronic mail address is due to the American computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 sent the world’s first electronic message over the network. The address had to consist of two parts - the user name and the name of the computer on which it was registered. As a separator between them, Tomilson chose an icon on the keyboard that was not found in either user names or computer names.
Versions of the origin of the name "dog"
There are several versions of the origin of this funny name. Firstly, the icon really does look like a curled up dog. Secondly, the abrupt sound of the English “at” is a bit like a dog barking. Thirdly, with a fair amount of imagination, you can see in the outline of the symbol almost all the letters included in the word “dog”, well, with the exception of “k”.
But the most romantic is the following legend: “A long time ago, when computers were large and displays were exclusively text-based, there lived a popular game with the simple name “Adventure.” Its point was to travel through a computer-generated labyrinth in search of treasures and battles with harmful underground creatures. In this case, the labyrinth on the screen was drawn with the symbols “!”, “+” and “-”, and the player, treasures and hostile monsters were designated by various letters and icons. Moreover, according to the plot, the player had a faithful assistant - a dog who could be sent into the catacombs for reconnaissance. And it was, of course, indicated by the @ sign.” Whether this was the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, conversely, the icon was chosen because it was already called that way, the legend is silent about this.
To be fair, it should be noted that in Russia “dog” is also called doggie, frog, bun, ear, ram and even muck.
What is the @ symbol called in other countries?
Bulgaria - “klomba” or “maymunsko a” (monkey A),
Netherlands - "apenstaartje" (monkey tail),
Israel - “strudel” (whirlpool),
Spain - like the weight measure “arroba”,
France - the same measure of weight "arrobase",
Portugal - the same unit of weight "arrobase",
Germany, Poland - monkey tail, monkey ear, paper clip, monkey,
Italy – “chiocciola” (snail),
Denmark, Norway, Sweden - “snabel-a” (snout a) or elephant trunk (a with trunk)
Czech Republic, Slovakia - rollmops (marinated herring),
America, Finland - cat,
China, Taiwan - little mouse,
Türkiye - rosette,
Serbia - “crazy A” or “maymun” (monkey)
Vietnam - "crooked A"
Ukraine - “ravlik” (snail), “doggie” or “dog”, “mavpochka” (“monkey”)
D. Usenkov
With the emergence and spread of e-mail, the “@” icon, used to separate the “to” and “where” fields in a subscriber’s mailing address, became truly world famous. The magazine has already reported on some facts related to this symbol (see “Science and Life” No. 7, 1999), but the “biography” of the popular sign is constantly updated. Dmitry Yuryevich Usenkov, senior researcher at the Institute of Informatization of Education of the Russian Academy of Education, tells the story.
The "@" sign, officially called "commercial at" and denoting the preposition "at" in English, is necessarily present in any e-mail address, separating the name of the owner of the electronic mailbox ("account") from the domain name of the mail server on which it the box is open.
"DOG" RU
In Russia, users most often call the "@" symbol "dog", which is why e-mail addresses formed from personal names and surnames sometimes take on a slightly offensive sound. Even jokes of a similar nature are now in circulation. Here, for example , what email address was invented by the participants of one of the KVNs: " [email protected]".
But still: why “dog”? There are several versions of the origin of this funny name, and which one is correct is difficult to determine. On the one hand, the icon really looks like a curled up dog. On the other hand, the abrupt sound of the English “at” is a bit like a dog barking. But the most plausible legend seems to be the one that exists “in computer circles.”
Once upon a time, when computers were large and displays were text-only, there was a popular game with the simple name "Adventure". Its purpose was to travel through a labyrinth created in the computer's memory in search of treasures and battles with harmful underground creatures. At the same time, the labyrinth on the screen was drawn with the symbols " ! ", "+ " And " - ", and the player, treasures and hostile monsters were designated by various letters and icons. Moreover, according to the plot, the player had a faithful assistant - a dog who could be sent to the catacombs for reconnaissance. And he was, of course, designated by the "@" icon.
Whether this was the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, on the contrary, the icon was chosen because it was already called that way - the legend is silent about this.
To be fair, it should be noted that in Russia “dog” is also called doggie, frog, bun, ear, ram, and even kryakozyabra.
"DOG" HISTORICALIn the official history of the Internet (and it has existed for a long time), it is generally accepted that we owe the appearance of “@” in an electronic mail address to the American computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 sent the world’s first electronic message over the network. Since at this moment he was forced to act in two roles at once - both the sender and the addressee, he had to invent the type of email address himself. To avoid confusion in writing names, as a “separator” he chose an icon on the keyboard that was obviously not found in first and last names. But you can use a symbol on the keyboard only if it is already there. Where did the corresponding key come from?
It turns out that this is a “legacy” of typewriter keyboards. Already in 1885, the first “Underwood” in history was equipped with a key with the “@” symbol, which was inherited by the computer 80 years later. But this, so to speak, is the history of modern times. In fact, the "@" symbol dates back at least to the early Middle Ages.
Thanks to the research of the Italian researcher Giorgio Stabile, a document was discovered in the archives of the Institute of Economic History of the city of Prato near Florence, where the sign we are interested in is found in writing for the first time. The document turned out to be a letter from a Florentine merchant dated 1536, which spoke of three merchant ships arriving in Spain. Their cargo included containers of wine, marked with the symbol "@".
After analyzing data on wine prices and the capacity of medieval vessels and comparing them with the system of measures of that time, the scientist came to the conclusion that the “@” sign was used as a measuring unit replacing the word “anfora”, that is, “amphora”. (This is what the universal measure of volume has been called since antiquity). So the roots of the “pedigree” of the modern postal badge are literally lost in hoary antiquity.
"DOG" MULTILINGUALInternet users in other countries like to use a variety of names for the "@" icon. Thus, in America and Finland it is often called a “cat”, in China - a “mouse”, in Germany - a “monkey sign”, in Sweden and Denmark it is compared to an elephant’s trunk, in Hungary and Norway - with a worm and even a pig’s tail, and in Spain - with a spiral-shaped candy, popular on the island of Mallorca.
Even in the international language Esperanto, the email symbol has its own name. There it is called a "snail".
