Where does the “dog” on the keyboard come from?

There are many different symbols, although we do not use all of them. But everyone has their own purpose and history. The written article will talk about “@”: we will consider its role and explanation of the assigned name.

Symbol story

You should first understand the definition. Thus, a “dog” is a symbol in the form of a lowercase letter “a” directly in an open circle. Initially, it was used in the documentation of payments instead of the English word “at”, which means “for the price”. It is important to understand that some linguists associate the very origin with the Middle Ages. It was during that period that the monks often prescribed it in Latin letters as abbreviations for “ad”.

Another part of the scholars claims that for the first time “@” was seen among the records of a merchant in Florence in the sixteenth century. He attached to it the meaning of "amphora." This was necessary in order to replace the "vessel" and indicate, for example, the price of one @ wine. If we talk about official recognition, we should mention the date associated with the introduction of the code for the mark in Morse code - February 2004. The presented decision was made in order to give additional convenience in the transfer of email addresses.

Of course, on the Internet you can find many other versions. For example, there is an opinion that the origin was due to a certain game, where the main character had to roam and perform tasks. In the role of him, as already understood, was a dog. It was also displayed on the monitor screen partially using the described icon. Consequently, over time, a certain association was formed, which instantly spread throughout the population. In conclusion, over time, certain areas have formed in which the label is applied in its own way.

Below are some of them:

  • Services for separating accounts from a domain name. So, most often you can find the use in writing address lines. This operation was first carried out in the twentieth century. The famous programmer of that time suggested using “@” in the process of sending a similar email from “[email protected]”.
  • In addition, there are other names of addresses in which you can find a shortcut.
  • In programming languages, as well as in formal languages, it occupies a special place, which can justify the most frequent use.
  • In the social network «twitter» before the name of the account is used as some kind of mention or in order to respond to other contacts.
  • In commercial calculations. Let's say the price of oil “10 gal of oil @ $ 3.95 / gal” is recorded in the USA.
  • In English-speaking countries, it is used in science.
  • In Europe, the corresponding road sign is depicted, which indicates a place of public access.
  • In some languages, for example, in Spanish and Italian it is used in colloquial speech by mail instead of writing the letter “o”. This is done in order to present gender in a neutral way.

Why is it called the “dog” in Russia?

In fact, it turns out that “et” in the Tatar and Bashkir languages ​​mean a dog. In other nations, especially Turkic, the indicated animal is pronounced similar to this word “um” or “yt”. Although it is interesting that the Spaniards and the Portuguese associate such an indication in electronic messages with the word "amphora" - arroba. In France, the inhabitants somewhat distorted it and turned it into arobase. In fact, the population of a particular territory often uses the meaning of “@” precisely with the zoological sphere, with animals. In Poland, the meaning is associated with the “monkey”, in Greece - with the “duck”, in Taiwan - with the “mouse”, in Hungary - with the “worm”.

In addition, the Swedes and Danes regard it as an “elephant trunk”, while Italians, like Koreans, regard it as a “snail”. A similar concept can be found among Armenians, they also call "@" a doggie. However, if we touch on the most unusual stories of the presented situation, then it is worth mentioning China. In the same place, the "dog" was pronounced trivially as "but in a circle." However, the spouse gave him the given name to the child born.

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