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In Norwegian the official name is "krøllalfa", meaning "curly alpha". Hip in the 90s, but I don't think I've heard anyone call it that in years. I was actually

In Norwegian the official name is "krøllalfa", meaning "curly alpha". Hip in the 90s, but I don't think I've heard anyone call it that in years. I was actually surprised when I learned that "at" was the proper English name and usage. I had always assumed it was a symbol that had been co-opted into network addresses because it was accessible from the keyboard and kinda looked like an a. One advantage of the international variants is that they're not ambiguous, whereas in English you might have to explicitly specify "the at symbol" when speaking. As a side note: A long time ago, before the internet and international shopping, I mainly thought of $ as the variable character in BASIC.

vidarh 12y ago
In the 80's it was not uncommon to hear "snabel-A" in Norway too, quite possibly because Danish and Swedish computer magazines were more commonly seen in Norway before more Norwegian magazines gained traction. "Alfrakrøll" was quite common for some time. Personally I don't think I've ever used krøllalfa - it just sounds dumb to me. "Alfrakrøll" is still what I'd prefer. Then again, I've lived outside of Norway for 14 years, and it's quite fascinating to come back for visits and come across word usage I'm totally unfamiliar with. Especially since starting with home computers in the early 80's means English technology terms got deeply ingrained for me long before Norwegian versions started gaining traction.
- elektronaut 12y ago
  Dialects might have played in. Krøllalfa is what Språkrådet recommends. I think both are awkward. There's a hair salon by my office called Alfakrøll, which is particularily cringeworthy. I've always had my computers and devices set to English. Direct translation of technical terms is usually jarring and/or confusing, and impossible to troubleshoot by googling. Especially new concepts that haven't gained traction yet.
  - unicornporn 12y ago
    Don't forget the Swedish classic "kanelbulle". It was very popular by the last year of they 90s and means "cinnamon bun". https://tickledpinkstyle.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/kanelbulle.jpg https://tickledpinkstyle.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/kanelbu...
- unwind 12y ago
  The Swedish is incorrectly reprinted by the TFA. It says "with an (elephant) trunk", while the referenced Tweet (by a Swedish person) says "elephant trunk A". The actual Swedish wording is "snabel-a", which is a compound word consisting of the two words "snabel" ([elephant] trunk) and "a" (the letter "a"). So the proper English translation of the Swedish name for the character @ would be something like "an A with a trunk", I guess, since English isn't quite so malleable when it comes to building compound words. Source: I'm from Sweden.
  - Sammi 12y ago
    Yeah it's the same for the Danish version. It's literaly "trunk-a" or just "trunka". I'm actually from the Faroe Islands, which is an autonomous contry in the Kindom of Denmark. We speak Faroese, another nordic language, and here it's "kurla". Which is literaly the Faroese word for curl. Just happens to have the a at the end. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kurla http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kurla
  - iamtew 12y ago
    I'm from Sweden as well, and it took a while for me to hear it referred to as "kanelbulle". In the early 90's when I was introduced to email, my father and his colleagues used to call it "kanelbulle", and that stuck with me. It wasn't until a few years later when email started to gain traction with the non-techie crowd I heard it being called "snabel-a". Translation; "kanelbulle" is Swedish for "cinnamon roll/bun", because @ looks like one.
    - iamtew 12y ago
      Edit: First sentence doesn't make sense, I mean it took me some time to hear it referred to as "snabel-a".
buckbova 12y ago
I always thought the English version was ampersat.
- phowat 12y ago
  AFAIK at is short for ampersat.
- allochthon 12y ago
  Sounds like it might be related to English "ampersand" (&), which goes back to Latin.
- kbenson 12y ago
  I just looked into this, and the ampers portion of of both ampersand and ampersat is short-hand/corruption of "and per se" [1], meaning ampersand is another way of writing the word "and", and ampersat is another way of writing the word "at". 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand#Etymology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand#Etymology
- voyou 12y ago
  I think "ampersat" was first coined in the 90s (when email suddenly made the @ sign more common), presumably by analogy with "ampersand". The earliest reference I can find is a suggestion from a viewer writing in to CBS Sunday Morning in 1994 (paywalled link, I'm afraid): https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/docview/getDocForCuiReq?lni=3SHY-V680-009C-B3D9&csi=8399&oc=00240&perma=true https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/docview/getDocForCuiReq?... This newspaper article from 1996 also shows someone proposing "ampersat" apparently as a novel suggestion: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/bits--bytes-1317440.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/bits--bytes-1317440....

vidarh 12y ago

In the 80's it was not uncommon to hear "snabel-A" in Norway too, quite possibly because Danish and Swedish computer magazines were more commonly seen in Norway before more Norwegian magazines gained traction. "Alfrakrøll" was quite common for some time. Personally I don't think I've ever used krøllalfa - it just sounds dumb to me. "Alfrakrøll" is still what I'd prefer. Then again, I've lived outside of Norway for 14 years, and it's quite fascinating to come back for visits and come across word usage I'm totally unfamiliar with. Especially since starting with home computers in the early 80's means English technology terms got deeply ingrained for me long before Norwegian versions started gaining traction.

elektronaut 12y ago
Dialects might have played in. Krøllalfa is what Språkrådet recommends. I think both are awkward. There's a hair salon by my office called Alfakrøll, which is particularily cringeworthy. I've always had my computers and devices set to English. Direct translation of technical terms is usually jarring and/or confusing, and impossible to troubleshoot by googling. Especially new concepts that haven't gained traction yet.
- unicornporn 12y ago
  Don't forget the Swedish classic "kanelbulle". It was very popular by the last year of they 90s and means "cinnamon bun". https://tickledpinkstyle.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/kanelbulle.jpg https://tickledpinkstyle.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/kanelbu...
unwind 12y ago
The Swedish is incorrectly reprinted by the TFA. It says "with an (elephant) trunk", while the referenced Tweet (by a Swedish person) says "elephant trunk A". The actual Swedish wording is "snabel-a", which is a compound word consisting of the two words "snabel" ([elephant] trunk) and "a" (the letter "a"). So the proper English translation of the Swedish name for the character @ would be something like "an A with a trunk", I guess, since English isn't quite so malleable when it comes to building compound words. Source: I'm from Sweden.
- Sammi 12y ago
  Yeah it's the same for the Danish version. It's literaly "trunk-a" or just "trunka". I'm actually from the Faroe Islands, which is an autonomous contry in the Kindom of Denmark. We speak Faroese, another nordic language, and here it's "kurla". Which is literaly the Faroese word for curl. Just happens to have the a at the end. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kurla http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kurla
- iamtew 12y ago
  I'm from Sweden as well, and it took a while for me to hear it referred to as "kanelbulle". In the early 90's when I was introduced to email, my father and his colleagues used to call it "kanelbulle", and that stuck with me. It wasn't until a few years later when email started to gain traction with the non-techie crowd I heard it being called "snabel-a". Translation; "kanelbulle" is Swedish for "cinnamon roll/bun", because @ looks like one.
  - iamtew 12y ago
    Edit: First sentence doesn't make sense, I mean it took me some time to hear it referred to as "snabel-a".

buckbova 12y ago

I always thought the English version was ampersat.

phowat 12y ago
AFAIK at is short for ampersat.
allochthon 12y ago
Sounds like it might be related to English "ampersand" (&), which goes back to Latin.
kbenson 12y ago
I just looked into this, and the ampers portion of of both ampersand and ampersat is short-hand/corruption of "and per se" [1], meaning ampersand is another way of writing the word "and", and ampersat is another way of writing the word "at". 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand#Etymology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand#Etymology
voyou 12y ago
I think "ampersat" was first coined in the 90s (when email suddenly made the @ sign more common), presumably by analogy with "ampersand". The earliest reference I can find is a suggestion from a viewer writing in to CBS Sunday Morning in 1994 (paywalled link, I'm afraid): https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/docview/getDocForCuiReq?lni=3SHY-V680-009C-B3D9&csi=8399&oc=00240&perma=true https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/docview/getDocForCuiReq?... This newspaper article from 1996 also shows someone proposing "ampersat" apparently as a novel suggestion: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/bits--bytes-1317440.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/bits--bytes-1317440....