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The oldest trace of @ being used to mean "at" can be traced to typeriters for commerce around 1880, where it was used as "5 apples @ 10 p" meaning "5 apples at
by johannes1234321 3y ago
The oldest trace of @ being used to mean "at" can be traced to typeriters for commerce around 1880, where it was used as "5 apples @ 10 p" meaning "5 apples at 10 pence each."
At least that's what German Wikipedia Claims while the corresponding paragraph in english Wikipedia is short.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-Zeichen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-Zeichen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign
- jfk13 3y agoThe formal name of the Unicode character U+0040 '@' is, in fact, COMMERCIAL AT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign#Unicode https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign#Unicode
- Sanzig 3y agoIt's also the "a commercial" in Quebec French [1]. Despite lacking the accent on the A (à), the intention of the A is to stand in for the single letter French word "à" (at) [2]. [1] https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/fiche-gdt/fiche/8352403/a-commercial https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/fiche-gdt/fiche/... [2] https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/fr/cles-de-la-redaction/a-commercial https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/fr/cles-de-la-reda...
- gattilorenz 3y agoMore recently (but still 1968, before email): "In ALGOL 68, the @ symbol is brief form of the at keyword; it is used to change the lower bound of an array. For example: arrayx[@88] refers to an array starting at index 88."
- d-lisp 3y agoFrench wikipedia traces the usage of @ to signify "à" (at) back to Renaissance !