5 ms·

I can't quite remember when we Germans transitioned from "Klammeraffe" (lit. "spider monkey") to "at" when spelling out email addresses...

by mhd 10y ago

elthran 10y ago
As a non-German: Please do explain the etymology here
- 205guy 10y ago
  The at symbol looks like it has a long tail wrapping around over its head, like a spider monkey sometimes sits.
- dagw 10y ago
  I'm guessing it's because spider monkys have long curling tails that look a bit like an @ if you squint: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/kids/photos/animals/Mammals/Q-Z/spider-monkey-walking-23878235.jpg http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/kids/photos/a...
- mhd 10y ago
  The circle bit looks like a monkey tail, simple as that. And there was no need for a shorter word, as it really wasn't used in common speech or writing (the French "à" was/is used in the commercial sense).
- kriro 10y ago
  I can only speculate but I believe it is due to the fact that it kind of looks like a paper clip shaped like a monkey ear (speculation on my part but I've heard that before). Klammer is short for Büroklammer (= paper clip) and Affe is monkey (or ape).
- usrusr 10y ago
  My guess used to be that it started as a "Klammer-A" ("a in a bracket") and that at some point the joking extension from A to Affe (monkey or ape, everyday German does not make a distinction) went viral, supported by the tail-like shape. Now that I know that the monkey connection even exists in languages without the a -> Affe link I'm not so confident anymore.
wuschel 10y ago
I faintly remember the Klammeraffe. Fun times. In Poland it is still called Małpa, which means monkey.
Rafert 10y ago
In Dutch we call it a "apenstaartje" ("monkey tail") although "at" is used and understood as well nowadays.
mseebach 10y ago
In Danish, it's "snabel-a", ie "[elephant's] trunk-a". # was at a time when a popular youth radio show had an IRC channel called "havelåge" or "garden gate", but "firkant" (simply "square") was and remains in wide use in voice response systems. Neither symbol had as far as I know any mainstream use before this time. # in internet-contexts has transitioned to "hashtag" (remains "firkant" in voice response), but as far as I know snabel-a is still in use (I just realised that I haven't participated in a Danish verbal transmission of an email address in quite a while).
macns 10y ago
In greece I'd say the majority still uses the "papaki" which means little duck: Papia is duck, -aki is the little one, papaki.
merraksh 10y ago
In Italian, it's still "chiocciola" (pron. kiotcholah), i.e. snail.
- erikpukinskis 10y ago
  So you say "merraksh snail yahoo dot com"?
  - merraksh 10y ago
    yes.
rosht 10y ago
in Ukraine it's "собака" (pron. "sobAka") and it means simply "dog"
- offa 10y ago
  I was just going to say the same for Russian, but you beat me to it. Never really thought about why we have named it that way though, it was always something I just accepted... seems weird now.
59nadir 10y ago
In Bulgaria it's gone through several disjointed phases. You can use either "кльомба" (klyomba, I have no idea what it's supposed to mean), "маймунка" (maymunka, monkey), "маймунско А" (maymunsko A, monkey A) or "at" to refer to it. In Swedish you can hear "snabel-A" (trunk-A, same as in Danish) or "at".
Kaali 10y ago
In Finland we call it "kissanhäntä" (cat's tail) or "miukumauku". "Miu" and "mau" are actually cat's meows, so "miukumauku" is kind of a "a meow, a meow" with two different words. Nowadays it's usually called "ät-merkki" as in "at-sign" as "at" is spelled in Finnish.

I can't quite remember when we Germans transitioned from "Klammeraffe" (lit. "spider monkey") to "at" when spelling out email addresses...

by mhd 10y ago

I can't quite remember when we Germans transitioned from "Klammeraffe" (lit. "spider monkey") to "at" when spelling out email addresses...

elthran 10y ago

As a non-German: Please do explain the etymology here

205guy 10y ago
The at symbol looks like it has a long tail wrapping around over its head, like a spider monkey sometimes sits.
dagw 10y ago
I'm guessing it's because spider monkys have long curling tails that look a bit like an @ if you squint: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/kids/photos/animals/Mammals/Q-Z/spider-monkey-walking-23878235.jpg http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/kids/photos/a...
mhd 10y ago
The circle bit looks like a monkey tail, simple as that. And there was no need for a shorter word, as it really wasn't used in common speech or writing (the French "à" was/is used in the commercial sense).
kriro 10y ago
I can only speculate but I believe it is due to the fact that it kind of looks like a paper clip shaped like a monkey ear (speculation on my part but I've heard that before). Klammer is short for Büroklammer (= paper clip) and Affe is monkey (or ape).
usrusr 10y ago
My guess used to be that it started as a "Klammer-A" ("a in a bracket") and that at some point the joking extension from A to Affe (monkey or ape, everyday German does not make a distinction) went viral, supported by the tail-like shape. Now that I know that the monkey connection even exists in languages without the a -> Affe link I'm not so confident anymore.

wuschel 10y ago

I faintly remember the Klammeraffe. Fun times. In Poland it is still called Małpa, which means monkey.

Rafert 10y ago

In Dutch we call it a "apenstaartje" ("monkey tail") although "at" is used and understood as well nowadays.

mseebach 10y ago

In Danish, it's "snabel-a", ie "[elephant's] trunk-a". # was at a time when a popular youth radio show had an IRC channel called "havelåge" or "garden gate", but "firkant" (simply "square") was and remains in wide use in voice response systems. Neither symbol had as far as I know any mainstream use before this time. # in internet-contexts has transitioned to "hashtag" (remains "firkant" in voice response), but as far as I know snabel-a is still in use (I just realised that I haven't participated in a Danish verbal transmission of an email address in quite a while).

macns 10y ago

In greece I'd say the majority still uses the "papaki" which means little duck: Papia is duck, -aki is the little one, papaki.

merraksh 10y ago

In Italian, it's still "chiocciola" (pron. kiotcholah), i.e. snail.

erikpukinskis 10y ago
So you say "merraksh snail yahoo dot com"?
- merraksh 10y ago
  yes.

rosht 10y ago

in Ukraine it's "собака" (pron. "sobAka") and it means simply "dog"

offa 10y ago
I was just going to say the same for Russian, but you beat me to it. Never really thought about why we have named it that way though, it was always something I just accepted... seems weird now.

59nadir 10y ago

In Bulgaria it's gone through several disjointed phases. You can use either "кльомба" (klyomba, I have no idea what it's supposed to mean), "маймунка" (maymunka, monkey), "маймунско А" (maymunsko A, monkey A) or "at" to refer to it. In Swedish you can hear "snabel-A" (trunk-A, same as in Danish) or "at".

Kaali 10y ago

In Finland we call it "kissanhäntä" (cat's tail) or "miukumauku". "Miu" and "mau" are actually cat's meows, so "miukumauku" is kind of a "a meow, a meow" with two different words. Nowadays it's usually called "ät-merkki" as in "at-sign" as "at" is spelled in Finnish.