The dog icon, familiar to every netizen, has existed much longer than email. But only with the advent of the Internet did the rounded “squiggle” become widely known: every day 2 billion times @ takes its place between the sender’s name and the server’s domain name. Who and how guessed to put a dog icon in the email address? And why a dog?
Once upon a time, when (oh, horror!) there was no email, no computers, or even electricity, all books were filled out by hand. No, then the dog badge was not written in the address, but it performed a quite noble function: it saved the time of the clerks who worked painstakingly in semi-darkness, in a half-bent position and holding the paper on their knees. Why in such an awkward position remains a mystery. But if you imagine several hours in this position, and working with pen and ink, it becomes clear how much easier the work was made by all kinds of ligatures.
The dog icon is read in English as “At”, which is translated into Russian as “on, in, by”. This sign denoted belonging to something, was used in stock accounts, and today more often indicates a specific place or event. In the Middle Ages, instead of “At” they used the preposition “Ad” - to, at, on, at, before. And the letter “d” was decorated with a long tail thrown to the left. The ligature @ was formed by merging the letters “a” and “d”, and, by and large, the history of the creation of the dog icon is the history of medieval writing in Europe.
In Brazil, Spain and Portugal, a similar symbol denoted a measure of weight and volume equal to one arrobe. And although historians doubt that it was the same @, the capital “A” with a curl, decorating jugs of wine or oil, really resembles an electronic “dog”.
Before you put the dog icon, translate your keyboard to English. language. Then, while holding shift, press the number 2. If you are working in Word, open insert - symbol - “symbols” tab, select “plain text - basic Latin”. In Unicode, @ is represented by the number 0040, and in Morse code by the symbol set: dot - dash - dash - dot - dash - dot.
Every European merchant who lived during the Renaissance knew perfectly well how to write the dog icon in the most advantageous way: a twisted, elegant @ was located in front of the price of the product, and was supposed to attract the attention of passers-by. Later, this ligature began to be used in accounting, for example: 12p @ 6 $ - 12 pieces for 6 dollars.
The following fact is not directly related to the dog icon, but is so curious that it would be wrong not to mention it. In the 15th century, when they didn’t even dream of post offices in their hometown, letters were delivered by foot or horse messengers. They notified the population of their arrival by blowing a horn similar to the one used by merchants, traveling performers, etc. From the end of the 16th – beginning of the 17th centuries. Horns were banned from being used by everyone except postmen. Today, the image of crossed postal horns can be seen on envelopes, stamps, postcards, etc. The simple instrument has become a symbol of mail, recognizable all over the world. So, the dog icon in the address closely resembles the outline of a horn, which is undoubtedly an interesting coincidence. And how interesting it turned out: the symbol
“virtual” mail accidentally repeated the outline of the real mail symbol!
A second life was given to the forgotten and unnecessary @ symbol by Ray Tomlinson. He also created the first program that made it possible to exchange text messages while working on different computers connected via ARPANET (the predecessor of the Internet). The first caps typed message containing random letters like "QWERTYUIOP" was sent in 1971. The photo shows the same laboratory and those same computers: from the one in the background, the first message was sent to the computer in the foreground.
A little later, when it became necessary to send messages to remote computers, Tomlinson noticed the dog icon on the keyboard and decided that it was the best way to separate the username and domain. As the creator of the email explains, the choice was not random: the @ sign was almost never used, is not similar to others, is conveniently located and fits quite organically into the email address. Tomlinson writes that in those years there was a question about excluding this sign from the characters required for the standard keyboard set, and the decision to use @ became a kind of revival of a forgotten ligature.
D. Usenkov
With the emergence and spread of e-mail, the “@” icon, used to separate the “to” and “where” fields in a subscriber’s mailing address, became truly world famous. The magazine has already reported on some facts related to this symbol (see “Science and Life” No. 7, 1999), but the “biography” of the popular sign is constantly updated. Dmitry Yuryevich Usenkov, senior researcher at the Institute of Informatization of Education of the Russian Academy of Education, tells the story.
The "@" sign, officially called "commercial at" and denoting the preposition "at" in English, is necessarily present in any e-mail address, separating the name of the owner of the electronic mailbox ("account") from the domain name of the mail server on which it the box is open.
"DOG" RU
In Russia, users most often call the "@" symbol "dog", which is why e-mail addresses formed from personal names and surnames sometimes take on a slightly offensive sound. Even jokes of a similar nature are now in circulation. Here, for example , what email address was invented by the participants of one of the KVNs: " [email protected]".
But still: why “dog”? There are several versions of the origin of this funny name, and which one is correct is difficult to determine. On the one hand, the icon really looks like a curled up dog. On the other hand, the abrupt sound of the English “at” is a bit like a dog barking. But the most plausible legend seems to be the one that exists “in computer circles.”
Once upon a time, when computers were large and displays were text-only, there was a popular game with the simple name "Adventure". Its purpose was to travel through a labyrinth created in the computer's memory in search of treasures and battles with harmful underground creatures. At the same time, the labyrinth on the screen was drawn with the symbols " ! ", "+ " And " - ", and the player, treasures and hostile monsters were designated by various letters and icons. Moreover, according to the plot, the player had a faithful assistant - a dog who could be sent to the catacombs for reconnaissance. And he was, of course, designated by the "@" icon.
Whether this was the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, on the contrary, the icon was chosen because it was already called that way - the legend is silent about this.
To be fair, it should be noted that in Russia “dog” is also called doggie, frog, bun, ear, ram, and even kryakozyabra.
"DOG" HISTORICALIn the official history of the Internet (and it has existed for a long time), it is generally accepted that we owe the appearance of “@” in an electronic mail address to the American computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 sent the world’s first electronic message over the network. Since at this moment he was forced to act in two roles at once - both the sender and the addressee, he had to invent the type of email address himself. To avoid confusion in writing names, as a “separator” he chose an icon on the keyboard that was obviously not found in first and last names. But you can use a symbol on the keyboard only if it is already there. Where did the corresponding key come from?
It turns out that this is a “legacy” of typewriter keyboards. Already in 1885, the first “Underwood” in history was equipped with a key with the “@” symbol, which was inherited by the computer 80 years later. But this, so to speak, is the history of modern times. In fact, the "@" symbol dates back at least to the early Middle Ages.
Thanks to the research of the Italian researcher Giorgio Stabile, a document was discovered in the archives of the Institute of Economic History of the city of Prato near Florence, where the sign we are interested in is found in writing for the first time. The document turned out to be a letter from a Florentine merchant dated 1536, which spoke of three merchant ships arriving in Spain. Their cargo included containers of wine, marked with the symbol "@".
After analyzing data on wine prices and the capacity of medieval vessels and comparing them with the system of measures of that time, the scientist came to the conclusion that the “@” sign was used as a measuring unit replacing the word “anfora”, that is, “amphora”. (This is what the universal measure of volume has been called since antiquity). So the roots of the “pedigree” of the modern postal badge are literally lost in hoary antiquity.
"DOG" MULTILINGUALInternet users in other countries like to use a variety of names for the "@" icon. Thus, in America and Finland it is often called a “cat”, in China - a “mouse”, in Germany - a “monkey sign”, in Sweden and Denmark it is compared to an elephant’s trunk, in Hungary and Norway - with a worm and even a pig’s tail, and in Spain - with a spiral-shaped candy, popular on the island of Mallorca.
Even in the international language Esperanto, the email symbol has its own name. There it is called a "snail".
With the advent of the Internet, the @ symbol, the so-called “dog,” became known to everyone. It is on every computer and smartphone. The most common use of this sign appears when writing email.
Few people know how the “dog” sign appeared, and that it was used several centuries before the Internet appeared. And certainly almost no one knows what this symbol is actually called correctly.
This dog in Russian is correctly called commercial “et”. The term comes from the English name - commercial at. But it is difficult to pronounce this long correct name of the sign. Therefore, colloquial symbols for @ have appeared in almost all languages. And all the names are somehow related to food or animals.
Belarusians call our dog the word “slimak”, which means “snail”. And indeed, there is a similarity between @ and a snail. Ukrainians also call it “snail” - “ravlik”. And also the Italians - “chiocciola”.
The Jews came up with a tasty name for the symbol. In Ivirit the word “strudel” means roll.
Some people think the @ sign looks like a monkey. For example, in Bulgarian they say “monkey A”, in German “klammeraffe”, and in Polish “małpa”. All this is translated as “monkey”.
The Turks call the dog "et", which in their language translates as "meat". The Greeks call it "papaki" - duck. And the Kazakhs are very surprised by their imagination with the name “aikulak”, which translates as “ear of the moon”.
The languages closest to the historical meaning of the @ symbol are Spanish and French - arroba and arobase, respectively. These words denote a measure of weight.
There are many hypotheses about the appearance and original meaning of the @ symbol. The most common is the origin of the word "aroba", which meant a measure of weight in some European languages in the Middle Ages. And in trade documents, aroba was written with a sign similar to our modern @.
Aroba was equal to 11.5 kg (12.5 kg in some regions). This word came to Europe from the Arabic language - “ar-rub”, which means “quarter”, that is, one fourth of one hundred pounds.
There is another hypothesis about how the dog sign appeared. In the same Middle Ages, Italy used a similar symbol that showed volume. The @ sign denoted a volume equal to one amphora.
A similar symbol was found in Rus'. In the documents, the first letter of the alphabet “az” was beautifully painted so that it looked like @.
The modern commercial name "et" appeared in English economic documents. For example, the expression 3 widgets @ $7 each = $21 means 3 widgets costing $7 each, resulting in a total of $21.
And since the symbol was used in business, this inevitably led to the fact that it appeared on typewriters, and then on computer keys.
The very word “dog” for the @ symbol most likely came from the game Adventure, in which there was a dog character, denoted by the @ sign. And if you look closely, the sign really looks like a dog curled up in a ball.
The word "monkey" most likely came from owners of eight-bit zx-spectrum computers, some of which had a button that allowed programs to be copied to disk. This process usually corrupted the program, which is why it was called monkeying. Well, the button that started the process was indicated by the @ symbol.
As we know, in the modern world, “dog” is most often found in writing emails. For example [email protected] can be understood as username on example.com. The symbol separates the username and domain name.
Almost everyone who is in one way or another connected with computers uses e-mail. But few people wondered how the “@” symbol, used in an email address and popularly called a “dog,” came about.
The history of the “dog” goes back to 1971, when programmer Ray Tomlinson was working on a program for exchanging electronic messages and, to be able to send letters from one computer to another, used the “@” icon, which is not found in English names and surnames.
Meanwhile, @ is a ligature (conjunction of letters) meaning “at”. The exact origin of the symbol is not known, but one hypothesis is that it is an abbreviation for the Latin ad. The name "commercial at" comes from bills. Since the symbol was used in business, it was placed on typewriter keyboards, from where it migrated to the computer.
In Spanish, Portuguese and French, the name of the symbol comes from the word "arroba" - an old Spanish unit of weight, which was denoted by the @ sign when written.
In the USSR, this sign was unknown before the advent of computers, and received its name with the spread of a computer game, where, according to the script, the “@” symbol ran across the screen and denoted a dog. Moreover, translated from Tatar “et” means “dog”.
In different countries the symbol is read differently. Here are some examples:
In the USA - at (“the at sign.”)
In Bulgaria - klomba or maimunsko a (“monkey A”).
In the Netherlands - apenstaartje ("monkey tail").
In Italy they say "chiocciola" - snail.
In Denmark and Norway they use “snabel-a” - “snout a”.
In Taiwan - a mouse.
In Finland - cat's tail.
In Greece - “not enough pasta”.
In Hungary - worm, mite.
In Serbia - “crazy A”.
In Sweden - an elephant.
In Vietnam - "crooked A".
In Ukraine - dog, doggie, tsutsenyatko (Ukrainian - puppy)
The "@" symbol has many uses these days. In addition to email and other Internet services, the symbol is used in many programming languages.
In 2004, to facilitate the transmission of email addresses, the International Telecommunication Union introduced a Morse code for the @ symbol ( - - - ).
To be honest, I didn’t know anything like that. very funny and interesting. in short, just super and thanks in advance for the high five
2009-11-19 22:49:21 - Alikberov SergeyEverything is much less romantic. Moreover, it is technocratic. The name of this icon was given by electronics engineers at the dawn of the Runet. A “dog” is a part of a cam mechanism which, due to its shape, very similar to this symbol, allows the axes of the mechanism to rotate only in one direction, i.e. blocks them, like a dog not allowing them to pass.
2010-01-30 10:40:12 - VasilyOak@ you, "technocrat" Alikberov. When @ was called a dog, there was no Runet yet. There was only an e-mail... You were probably still crawling under the table on foot... The most obvious thing is that at really sounds like a dog barking. Programmers of the early 90s always had this opinion.
2010-01-30 17:03:37 - Andrey BuninAlikberov Sergey, how about proving it?
2010-02-03 21:52:57 - Alikberov SergeyVasyatka, read what it says: “... part of a mechanism... similar to this icon...”. Have you seen cam mechanisms? And they, by the way, controlled the first Soviet ballistic missiles, representing a very reliable and noise-resistant unit. Oh, and you can still hear dogs barking...
2010-04-18 17:50:09 - Maslennikova InnaTell me how to do it so that the computer shows this dog, otherwise it doesn’t write... thanks in advance.
2010-05-25 17:39:53 - ArinaPlease tell me HOW TO ENTER THIS DOG ONTO THE COMPUTER?
2011-03-25 19:17:27 - ArinaEverything figured out. you need to press shift+2
2011-11-21 15:13:10 - Sasha 2013-07-23 19:14:27.547251 - Nastyusha 5+thanks for the peterka
2014-11-14 20:14:28.002529 - Motkov Dmitry RomanychI'm... I'm talking about the mechanism... the cam... in the Soviet... I can't wrap my head around, rockets!!! And about the winder in the watch, your knowledge is weak? The dog in mechanics IS A COMMA, however!!!
2015-07-28 18:42:40.495166 - DARIA VOLKOVAHOW TO MAKE THIS DOG?
2015-10-22 06:19:53.824886 - Zikhor Vyacheslav Vasilievichthat's so cool
2015-11-25 19:57:44.046673 - Totikova Alina EvgenievnaWhat was the name of this game with a dog (@) in the USSR?
2017-10-02 20:01:07.131344 - Pogadaev VictorIn Indonesian language this icon is called E snail (E keong)
