Ampersand, slash, circumflex, octotorp, asterisk - are all these names familiar? But most of them see them every day, but do not always know that their names sound that way. But this is just &, /, ^, # and *, respectively. What about finding out where the dog icon came from, where it is used, and why it's called that?
History
@ is found in medieval texts, but the name of the one who first began to use it is unknown. At that time, the monks wrote it to replace such prepositions and constructions as "in", "by", "in relation", etc., that is, Latin ad. In addition, in France and Spain, this sign was found to indicate one of the measures of weight - arroba, equal to 11.5-12.5 kg. In some sales documents, the “dog” icon was found when it came to wine. Therefore, experts believe that the vessels for drinks - amphora - were also designated.
Later, merchants began to use it when issuing commercial accounts. With the invention of printing presses and typewriters, the dog icon settled on their keyboards. And after the advent of computers, he migrated there too. In connection with its function in English, it was called commerical at. Since this sign was unknown before the appearance of computer keyboards in the USSR, it has not yet acquired its more or less official name in Russian. Despite the fact that in old manuscript books you can find characters that are vaguely reminiscent of @, still they are not such a sign. So it’s clear why he didn’t receive a well-established and unified verbal designation. In colloquial speech, several names are used at once. So why is the icon called "dog"? There are several possible reasons.
Why a dog?
There is no official translation of the name of this icon in Russian, so its name sounds like "commercial at". In colloquial speech, several names have taken root, the most popular of which is considered to be "dog." In the Russian language, as in others, there are also other, less well-known names of this symbol, but they will be discussed a little later. So why is the icon called "dog"? The truth, of course, is no longer to be found, but several possible reasons are given:
- The @ symbol itself resembles a sleeping dog curled up.
- The English name of this symbol is somewhat reminiscent of a dog barking, although this could hardly affect the fact that this symbol was called that way.
- Finally, the most likely option: at a time when computers were much less accessible than today, many experts were addicted to the Adventure game, which used various symbols to indicate surrounding characters and objects. The main character had a faithful companion - his dog. It is easy to guess which symbol was used to designate it.
In addition to this name, many more names are used for @. It is curious how this icon is also called.
Other names in Russian
In addition to various unprintable expressions, in some places the alternative names of "dogs" are used - "monkey", "krakozyabra", "squiggle", "ear", "snail", "cat", "rose", "frog" and others. Typically, such names reflect people's ideas about what this symbol looks like. And Russian-speaking Internet users are not so original in this - in many European languages, common names @ are also associated with the "animal" theme.
In other countries
Many foreigners believe that @ is similar to strudel, which, however, is not so surprising, there is an external similarity. In France and Spain, the old designation is preserved - "arroba". In some countries, the name is associated with the letter “a” most similar to the “dog” icon. In Serbia, for example, the name "nuts A" is used, and in Vietnam - "crooked A".
And yet, when talking to representatives of different countries, as a rule, @ is called at. With the proliferation of the Internet, this became necessary at least in order to quickly dictate someone your email address. By the way, the “dog” was recognized as such a significant symbol that in 2004 it even received its own code in Morse code.
By the way, it is precisely the most popular name @ in Russian that has become the subject of many jokes. Since this symbol can most often be found in email addresses, and the first part consists of user names or nicknames, sometimes the whole thing sounds pretty comical.
How to print?
The dog icon on the keyboard is located so that it is almost impossible to find it by accident. In addition, in the Russian layout it is not, because it is not needed there. After all, it is simply not used by the Russians in their native speech and in writing. In the English layout of the standard keyboard, @ is located on key 2. How to print the "dog" icon? Very simple - hold down the Shift key and press the 2 upper numeric keys. In other layouts, this does not work. If @ is really needed, you can copy it from any email address. There is another way, how to put the “dog” icon, - open in the text editor, for example, Microsoft Word, the menu for inserting special characters. It is not difficult to find what you are looking for, in the same window you can set a key combination with which it will be possible to type @ in the future.
Using
It is believed that partly due to its modern functional load the “dog” owes to the person who was the first to send an email to Arpanet in 1971, which is considered the progenitor of the modern Internet, to Ray Tomlinson. Someone even ascribes to him the invention of this symbol, but this is not so. Now @ is used as a separator of the names of the mailbox and the domain name on which it is located. This icon was chosen for a very simple reason - it could not be contained in anyone's name, so confusion with identifiers could not arise. This area of application is most noticeable to ordinary Internet users, however @ is used not only here. It is present in programming languages. There, the icon serves for various purposes: in PHP it disables the output of possible errors, in Perl as an array identifier, etc. Some organizations use @ as their informal symbol. Also, in some Romance languages, this icon is used in electronic correspondence between acquaintances, if it is necessary to make a noun neutral by gender for any reason, that is, @ replaces a or o.
This symbol may not seem so much needed, but it is not. Replacing the “dog” is almost impossible, and it’s not worth it - everyone is used to it.