What does the dog icon mean. How the @ symbol came about and why we call it "dog"

Some figures in the Internet space call this symbol "one of the main pop symbols of our time, a signal of our common communication space."

Somewhat grandiloquently, in my opinion, but the following fact testifies to the worldwide recognition of this and, as it is even sometimes noted, “canonization”. In February 2004, the International Telecommunication Union introduced a code for the @ symbol ( - - - ) in Morse code, for the convenience of transferring addresses. The code combines Latin letters, A and C, and reflects their joint graphic writing.

The search for the origins of the @ symbol takes us back at least to the 15th century, and perhaps even further, although linguists and paleographers still disagree on this issue.

Professor Giorgio Stabile put forward such a hypothesis. A 16th-century document written by a Florentine merchant mentioned "the price of one A wine" (possibly amphoras). At the same time, the letter A, according to the then tradition, was decorated with a curl and looked like @.

Photo: pixabay.com

The American scientist Berthold Ullman suggested that the @ sign was invented by medieval monks to shorten the Latin word "ad", which was often used as universal word, meaning "on", "in", "in relation to", etc.

in spanish, portuguese, French the name of the symbol comes from the word "arroba" - an old Spanish measure of weight, ca. 15 kg, which was abbreviated on the letter with the @ sign.

Contemporary official name The "commercial at" symbol has its origin in bills, for example, 7 widgets @ $2 each = $14, which translates to 7 widgets. 2$ = 14$. Since this symbol was used in business, it was placed on the keyboards of typewriters and from there migrated to the computer.

Photo:

We owe the distribution of this symbol on the network to the forefather of e-mail, Tomlinson. He was the one who chose the @ symbol. When asked much later why he chose this particular icon, he replied simply:

I searched the keyboard for a sign that could not be found in any name and cause confusion.

Such a symbol was needed by Tomlinson at the time when he was working on the creation of a messaging system in the Arpanet network (the progenitor of the Internet). Basically, he had to come up with new scheme addressing, which would identify not only the recipients, but also the computers on which their mailboxes were located. To do this, Tomlinson needed a separator, and he, in general, random selection fell on the @ sign. The first network address was [email protected] .

In Russia, users most often call the @ symbol “ ”, which is why e-mail addresses formed from personal names and surnames sometimes take on unexpected coloring. It is curious that they use both folk talents in their work (for example, the joke: “The dog is gone, @ don’t offer”), and official jokers - KVN people (for example, “ [email protected]»).

Photo: pixabay.com

But still: why "dog"? There are several versions of the origin of this funny name.

First, the badge really looks like a curled up dog.
Secondly, the abrupt sound of the English "at" is a bit like a dog barking.
Thirdly, with a fair amount of imagination, you can consider almost all the letters included in the word “dog” in the outlines of the symbol, well, perhaps, with the exception of “k”.

But the most romantic is the following legend:

Once upon a time, when computers were big and displays were all text, there was a popular game with the simple name "Adventure" ("Adventure"). Its meaning was to travel through a computer-generated labyrinth 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 indicated 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 it was designated, of course, by the @ sign.

Whether this was the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, conversely, the icon was chosen because it was already called that, the legend is silent about this.

In fairness, it should be noted that in Russia a “dog” is also called a dog, a frog, a bun, an ear, a ram, and even a kryakozyabra.

In other countries, this symbol is associated with different items. Below is far from full list how the "@" symbol is called in other countries.

Bulgaria - klomba or maimunsko, a ("monkey A");
Netherlands - apenstaartje ("monkey tail");
Israel - "strudel";
Spain - as well as a measure of weight "arroba";
France - the same measure of weight "arrobase";
Germany, Poland - monkey tail, monkey ear, paper clip, monkey;
Italy - "chiocciola" - snail;
Denmark, Norway, Sweden - "snabel-a" - "snout a" or elephant trunk;
Czech Republic, Slovakia - rollmops (marinated herring);
America, Finland - cat;
China, Taiwan - a mouse;
Türkiye - rose;
Serbia - "crazy A";
Vietnam - "twisted A";
Ukraine - “ravlik” (snail), “doggie” or, again, “dog”;

Photo: cosma, PressFoto.ru

As you can see, for many peoples, the @ sign evokes an association with a snuggly animal, for some with an appetizing strudel or herring roll, the poetic Turks compared it with a flower, but the disciplined Japanese use the English “attomark” without any poetic comparisons.

Lozhkin Vladislav

The project of a 5d student of the class "The origin and meaning of the symbol "dog"

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DEPARTMENT EDUCATION AND SOCIAL AND LEGAL PROTECTION OF CHILDHOOD

ADMINISTRATION OF THE CITY OF NIZHNY NOVGOROD

MUNICIPAL BUDGET EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

SCHOOL #15

603083, Nizhny Novgorod, Avtomekhanicheskaya st., 12, tel. 256-87-53

Scientific Society of Students

Origin and meaning of the @ symbol (dog).

Completed:

Lozhkin Vladislav

5 D class MBOU school No. 15

Supervisor:

Kuznetsova A.V.

English teacher

MBOU school №15

Nizhny Novgorod

2016

Page

Introduction……………………………………………………… 3

CHAPTER 1. The origin of the dog……………………….. 4

CHAPTER 2. Using the symbol in life……………... 6

CHAPTER 3.Practical part……………………………. 7

Conclusion………………………………………………… 10

References………………………………………... 11

Introduction

At present, humanity cannot imagine its life without the existence of the Internet. Every day, millions of users go to the Internet for this or that information, create various sites, exchange letters, communicate and watch movies. And it is unlikely that among the Internet audience there will be a person who is unfamiliar with the @ symbol. People come across this symbol every day, but many do not even think about where this symbol came from, and where else it can be found except in an email address.

The purpose of this work is to study the history of the origin of the @ symbol, as well as its significance in the modern world.

In accordance with the goals, the following tasks were set:

To study the history of the origin of the symbol;

To study and analyze the areas of its use;

Investigate the frequency of use of the symbol in scientific books.

Many American discoveries have a great impact on the way of life in other countries. this work will allow us to understand what role the @ symbol played not only in America, but also in other countries of the world.

CHAPTER 1. The origin of the @ symbol

There are many versions of the origin of the @ symbol - a dog.

Where the symbol came from is not known for certain. It exists by

at least since the 15th century, and possibly earlier.

According to the hypothesis of Professor Giorgio Stabile, in a 16th-century document written by a Florentine merchant, “the price of one A wine” (possibly amphoras) was mentioned. At the same time, the letter A, according to the then tradition, was decorated with a curl and looked like @. From this we can assume that the symbol came from the word "amphora".

Second origin theory@ symbol - dog says that in Spanish, Portuguese, French, the name of the symbol comes from the word "arroba" - an old Spanish measure of weight, approx. 15 kg, which was abbreviated on the letter with the @ sign.

Many people are interested in the name of the symbol "dog". Note that the official modern name for this symbol sounds like "commercial at" and originates from the accounts in which it was used.

Since the symbol "dog" was used in business, it was placed on the keyboards of all typewriters. He even attended the first

typewriter inhuman history "Underwood", which was released back in 1885. And only after a long 80 years, the symbol "dog" was inherited by the first computer keyboards.

Let's turn to official history World Wide Web. She claims that the Internet originated - the symbol "dog" in e-mail addressesThanks to an American engineer and computer scientist named Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 managed to send the first electronic message in history over the network. In this case, the address had to be composed of two parts - the name of the computer through which the registration was made, and the username. Tomplinson chose the symbol "dog" on the keyboard as the separator between the indicated parts, since it was not part of either computer names or user names.The first network address was [email protected].

Why is this symbol called “dog” in Russia? Existsseveral versions of the origin of this funny name. One by one,the badge 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.

Still others manage to consider almost all the letters included in the word “dog” in the inscriptions of the symbol, well, perhaps, with the exception of “k”.

However, the most romantic can be called the following legend. Once upon a time, in that good time, when all computers were very large, and the screens were exclusively text, there was one popular game in the virtual kingdom, which was named, reflecting its content - "Adventure" (Adventure). Its meaning was to travel through a labyrinth created by a computer in search of various treasures. There were, of course, also battles with underground harmful creatures. The labyrinth on the display was drawn using the symbols "-", "+", "!", and the player, hostile monsters and treasures were indicated by various icons and letters. Moreover, according to the plot, the player was friends with a faithful assistant - a dog, which could always be sent for reconnaissance in the catacombs. It was designated just by the @ sign. Was this the root cause of the now generally accepted name, or, conversely, was the icon chosen by the developers of the game, because it was already called that? The legend does not provide answers to these questions.

CHAPTER 2

The symbol is used in network services to separate the nameuser (account) from the namedomain . This is the most prominent, but not the only, use case for an email address. There are many other areas that are not similar to each other, where this symbol plays an important role.

On Twitter, this symbol is used to mention or reply to other users.

The international student organization AIESEC informally uses "@" as the organization's symbol in internal correspondence.

In Spanish, Italian, and other Romance languages, it is used in informal e-mail correspondence instead of the letter "o" to make the noun gender-neutral. For example, [email protected] used instead of amigos (friends) and amigas (girlfriends). (The official grammar rules in such cases require writing amigos).

In Malagasy, "@" is an abbreviation for amin'ny;

Can be used in place of the shva character when its spelling "ə" is technically not possible (e.g. in Kirschenbaum and X-SAMPA systems).

In Europe there is road sign with this symbol. It means a place of public access to the Internet.

In roguelike games, the "@" sign is used to indicate the player's current position.

In chemistry - for writing formulas of endohedral fullerenes, for example [email protected].

CHAPTER 3 Practical part

In February 2004, the International Telecommunication Union introduced the code for the @ character ( - - - ) in Morse code, to facilitate the transmission of email addresses. The code combines the Latin letters A and C and reflects their joint graphic writing. This became a fact of his worldwide recognition.

@ symbol in different countries are called differently. The poor fellow did not find a single name, but he acquired many funny names. Here are some of them:

Bulgaria - "monkey A"

The Netherlands - "monkey's tail"

Israel - "Strudel"

Germany, Poland - monkey tail, monkey ear, paper clip, monkey,

Italy - snail,

Denmark, Norway, Sweden - "snout a" or elephant trunk,

Czech Republic, Slovakia - rollmops (marinated herring),

America, Finland - cat,

China, Taiwan - mouse,

Türkiye - rose,

Serbia - "crazy A"

Vietnam - "twisted A",

Ukraine - “ravlik” (snail), “doggie” or, again, “dog”.

As a result of the analysis and summing up the results of this work, an experimental and practical part was compiled, which assumed:

Investigate the prevalence of this symbol in our school life;

To investigate the frequency of use of the symbol in school books of a scientific orientation.

Guided by their personal experience and the experience of my classmates, we can conclude that we can see this symbol on the computer keyboard, it is located mainly on the number "2" and is replaced when the English font is turned on and the "shift" / game @ keys are held down.

As for textbooks, I noticed this letter in the textbook on computer science (L.L. Bosova), in English "Starlight" (Virginia Evans), in mathematics (N.Ya. Vilenkin). Each of these tutorials uses the @ symbol multiple times. I made an attempt to count the use of this symbol in textbooks. And here are the results I came to: for example, in an English textbook, the symbol “dog” occurs 5 times, in a mathematics textbook 8 times, in a computer science textbook 16 times.

From the diagram above, we can conclude that in the textbooks of the natural and mathematical direction, the symbol @ is found more often than in other textbooks. All this suggests that the @ symbol is a creation of computer technology. There are many sites that include this symbol, for example: [email protected], another[email protected], third[email protected] .

CONCLUSION

The most common version of the origin of the @ symbol is the hypothesis of Professor Giorgio Stabile, which says that the symbol came from the word "amphora".

As for the official version, it claims that the symbol "dog" appeared in e-mail addressesThanks to an American engineer and computer scientist named Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 managed to send the first electronic message in history over the network.

There are many areas where this symbol plays an important role. This is both part of the email address and the symbol of the organization AIESEC for their internal correspondence, and a seam symbol (neutral sound), and a road sign, and a chemical formula designation.

But, despite such an extensive use of the symbol, we can say that this is still a creation of information technology.

Indeed, the most recognizable symbol has become precisely thanks to the emails that are sent by the thousands every day. It can be assumed that today you will receive a letter with a "dog", and it will bring only good news.

Bibliography:

1.Twitter: how to set up your account/Strachan Donald.-The Daily Telegraph, 2009

2. English language. Grade 5: for general education. organizations and schools with a deep learning English. lang. / [K.M. Baranova, D. Dooley, V.V. Kopylova et al.] - 3rd ed.

3. Informatics: textbook for grade 5 / L.L. Bosova, A.Yu. Bosova.-3rd ed.-M.: BINOM. Knowledge Laboratory, 2015.-184p.

4. Mathematics. Grade 5: studies. for general education students. organizations / N.Ya. Vilenkin, S.I. Shvartsburd. - 34th ed.

The @ symbol is called differently in different countries. The poor fellow did not find a single name, but he acquired many funny names. Here are some of them:

Bulgaria - klomba or maimunsko a ("monkey A"),

Netherlands - apenstaartje ("monkey's tail"),

Israel - "strudel",

Spain - like the measure of weight "arroba",

France - the same measure of weight "arrobase",

Germany, Poland - monkey tail, monkey ear, paperclip, monkey,

Italy - "chiocciola" - snail,

Denmark, Norway, Sweden - "snabel-a" - "snout a" or elephant trunk,

Czech Republic, Slovakia - rollmops (marinated herring),

America, Finland - cat,

China, Taiwan - little mouse,

Türkiye - rose,

Serbia - "crazy A",

Vietnam - "twisted A",

Ukraine - “ravlik” (snail), “doggie” or, again, “dog”.

The fact of its worldwide recognition was the introduction in February 2004 by the International Telecommunication Union in Morse code of the code for the symbol @ (. - - . - .), for the convenience of transferring e-mail addresses. The code combines the Latin letters A and C and reflects their joint graphic writing.

Where the symbol came from is not known for certain. It has existed since at least the 15th century, and possibly even earlier. According to Professor Giorgio Stabile's hypothesis, a 16th-century document written by a Florentine merchant mentioned "the price of one A of wine" (possibly amphoras).

At the same time, the letter A, according to the then tradition, was decorated with a curl and looked like @. From this we can assume that the symbol came from the word "amphora".

According to the American scientist Berthold Ullman, the @ sign was invented by medieval monks to shorten the Latin word "ad", which was often used as a universal word meaning "on", "in", "in relation to", etc.

How did the @ symbol - a dog - come about?

In Spanish, Portuguese, French, the name of the symbol comes from the word "arroba" - an old Spanish measure of weight, approx. 15 kg., which was abbreviated on the letter with the @ sign.

The modern official name for the symbol "commercial at" comes from commercial calculations, for example, 7 widgets @ $2 each = $14, which translates to 7 widgets. 2$ = 14$. Since this symbol was used in trade, it was placed on the keyboards of the first typewriters and from there migrated to the computer keyboard.

The dog came to the Internet thanks to the creator of e-mail, Tomlinson. He chose it as a character on the keyboard that could not be found in any name and cause confusion, as a separator for the username and email server. The first network address was [email protected] in the Arpanet network.

How did the @ symbol - a dog - come about?

Why is this symbol called “dog” in Russia? There are several versions of the origin of this funny name.

According to one, 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. Still others manage to consider almost all the letters included in the word “dog” in the inscriptions of the symbol, well, perhaps, with the exception of “k”.

The most common version sees the origin of this name in one of the very first computer games"Adventure" ("Adventure"). Back then, the displays were purely text-based, and the story of the game had to travel through a text labyrinth.

One of the characters in this game was a dog, which was denoted by the @ symbol. Whether the name came from this game, or whether the symbol was chosen because of its name, is now very difficult to find out. Maybe you know for sure?

About where the signs and symbols came from August 26th, 2015

As I told you about and the same , now let's talk about the history of those symbols that we use almost every day.

Percent "%"

The word "percentage" itself comes from the Latin. "pro centum", which means "hundredth part" in translation. In 1685, Mathieu de la Porte's Manual of Commercial Arithmetic was published in Paris. In one place, it was about percentages, which then meant "cto" (short for cento). However, the typesetter mistook that "cto" for a fraction and typed "%". So because of a typo, this sign came into use. Ampersand "&"

The authorship of the ampersand is attributed to Marcus Tullius Tiron, a devoted slave and secretary of Cicero. Even after Tyro became a freedman, he continued to write Ciceron's texts. And by 63 BC. e. invented his own system of abbreviations for speeding up writing, called “Tyron signs” or “Tyron notes” (Notæ Tironianæ, no originals survived), which were used until the 11th century (so at the same time Tiron is also considered the founder of Roman shorthand).

Question mark "?"

It has been found in printed books since the 16th century, however, to express the question, it was fixed much later, only in the 18th century.

The mark of the sign comes from the Latin letters q and o (quaestio - search [answer]). Initially, they wrote q over o, which then transformed into a modern style.

Exclamation mark "!"

The exclamation mark comes from the expression "note of admiration" (a mark of amazement). According to one theory of its origin, it was the Latin word for joy (Io), written with an "I" above the "o". The exclamation mark first appeared in the Catechism of Edward VI, printed in London in 1553.

Doggy, or commercial floor "@"

The origin of this symbol is unknown. The traditional hypothesis is a medieval abbreviation of the Latin preposition ad (means "to", "on", "up to", "y", "at").

In 2000, Giorgio Stabile, a Sapienza professor, put forward a different hypothesis. A letter written by a Florentine merchant in 1536 mentioned the price of one "A" of wine, with the letter "A" decorated with a scroll and looking like "@" according to the Stabila, it was an abbreviation for the unit of measure of volume - the standard amphora.

In Spanish, Portuguese, French, the @ symbol traditionally means arroba - an old Spanish measure of weight equal to 11.502 kg (in Aragon 12.5 kg); the word itself comes from the Arabic "ar-rub", which means "a quarter" (a quarter of a hundred pounds). In 2009, the Spanish historian Jorge Romance discovered the abbreviation of arroba with @ in an Aragonese manuscript of the Taula de Ariza written in 1448, almost a century before the Florentine script studied by Stabile.

Signs similar to @ are found in Russian books of the 16th-17th centuries - in particular, on the title page of the Sudebnik of Ivan the Terrible (1550). Usually this is the letter “az” decorated with a curl, denoting a unit in the Cyrillic number system, in the case of Sudebnik, the first point.

Octothorpe or sharp "#"

The etymology and English spelling (octothorp, octothorpe, octatherp) of the word is debatable.

According to some sources, the sign comes from a medieval cartographic tradition, where a village surrounded by eight fields was designated in this way (hence the name "octothorp").

According to other reports, this is a playful neologism of Bell Labs employee Don Macpherson (eng. Don Macpherson), which appeared in the early 1960s, from octo- (Latin octo, Russian eight), referring to the eight "ends" of the symbol, and -thorpe, referring to Jim Thorpe (medalist Olympic Games, which McPherson was interested in). However, Douglas A. Kerr, in his article "The ASCII Character 'Octatherp'", says that "octatherp" was created as a joke by himself, as well as by Bell Labs engineers John Schaak and Herbert Uthlaut. The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories (1991) gives the spelling "octotherp" as the original, and credits telephone engineers as its authors.

Semicolon ";"

The semicolon was first introduced by the Italian printer Aldo Manutius (Italian: Aldo Pio Manuzio; 1449/1450–1515), who used it to separate opposite words and independent parts of compound sentences. Shakespeare already used the semicolon in his sonnets. In Russian texts, the comma and the semicolon appeared at the end of the 15th century.

Asterisk, or asterisk "*"

It was introduced in the 2nd century BC. e. in the texts of the Library of Alexandria by the ancient philologist Aristophanes of Byzantium to indicate ambiguities.

Brackets "()"

Parentheses appeared in 1556 with Tartaglia (for a radical expression) and later with Girard. At the same time, Bombelli used the corner in the form of the letter L as the initial bracket, and as the final one in an inverted form (1550); such a record became the progenitor of square brackets. Curly braces were suggested by Viet (1593). Nevertheless, most mathematicians then preferred to underline the highlighted expression instead of brackets. Leibniz introduced brackets into general use.

Tilde "~"

In most languages, the superscript tilde corresponds to a character derived from the letters n and m, which in medieval cursive writing were often written above the line (above the previous letter) and degenerated into a wavy line in the style.

Dot "."

The oldest sign is dot. It is already found in the monuments of ancient Russian writing. However, its use in that period differed from the modern one: firstly, it was not regulated; secondly, the dot was placed not at the bottom of the line, but above - in the middle of it; moreover, in that period, even individual words were not separated from each other. For example: at the time the holiday is approaching ... (Arkhangelsk Gospel, XI century). What is the explanation for the word dot gives V. I. Dahl:

“POINT (poke) f., badge from an injection, from sticking to something with a point, tip of a pen, pencil; small speck."

The dot can rightly be considered the ancestor of Russian punctuation. It is no coincidence that this word (or its root) entered the name of such signs as semicolon, colon, ellipsis. And in the Russian language of the 16th-18th centuries, the question mark was called question mark, exclamatory - surprise point. In the grammatical writings of the 16th century, the doctrine of punctuation marks was called “the doctrine of the power of points” or “about the point mind”, and in the grammar of Lawrence Zizanias (1596) the corresponding section was called “On points”.

Comma ","

The most common punctuation mark in Russian is considered comma. This word is found in the 15th century. According to P. Ya. Chernykh, the word comma- this is the result of substantiation (transition into a noun) of the passive participle of the past tense from the verb commas (sya) - "to hook (sya)", "to hurt", "to stab". V. I. Dal connects this word with the verbs wrist, comma, stammer - “stop”, “delay”. This explanation, in our opinion, seems reasonable.

Colon ":«

Colon[:] as a separating sign begins to be used from the end of the 16th century. It is mentioned in the grammars of Lavrenty Zizaniy, Melety Smotrytsky (1619), as well as in the first Russian grammar of the Dolomonos period by V. E. Adodurov (1731).

The later characters are dash[-] And ellipsis[…]. There is an opinion that the dash was invented by N.M. Karamzin. However, it has been proven that this sign was found in the Russian press already in the 60s of the 18th century, and N. M. Karamzin only contributed to the popularization and consolidation of the functions of this sign. For the first time, the dash sign [-] under the name "silent woman" was described in 1797 in the "Russian Grammar" by A. A. Barsov.

Ellipsis sign[…] under the name “precedent sign” is noted in 1831 in the grammar of A. Kh. Vostokov, although its use occurs in the practice of writing much earlier.

No less interesting is the history of the appearance of the sign, which later received the name quotes[" "]. The word quotation marks in the meaning of a musical (hook) sign occurs in the 16th century, but in the meaning punctuation mark it began to be used only at the end of the 18th century. It is assumed that the initiative to introduce this punctuation mark into the practice of Russian written speech (as well as dash) belongs to N. M. Karamzin. Scientists believe that the origin of this word is not fully understood. Comparison with the Ukrainian name paws makes it possible to assume that it is formed from the verb quoting - “waddle”, “limp”. In Russian dialects kavysh - "duckling", "gosling"; kavka - "frog". Thus, quotes - „traces of duck or frog legs”, “hook”, “squiggle”.

As you can see, the names of most punctuation marks in Russian are native Russian, and the term punctuation marks itself goes back to the verb punctuate - "to stop," to delay in motion. The names of only two signs were borrowed. Hyphen(dash) - from it. Divis(from lat. division- separately) and dash (trait) - from French tiret, tirer.

The beginning of the scientific study of punctuation was laid by M. V. Lomonosov in the Russian Grammar. Today we use the "Rules of Spelling and Punctuation", adopted in 1956, that is, almost half a century ago.

"$" sign
There are many versions of the origin of the dollar, I want to tell you about the most interesting ones.

In one of the first, this symbol is directly related to the letter S. Even the Spaniards, in the era of their colonization, put the letter S on gold bars and sent them from the American continent to Spain. Upon arrival, they were applied vertical stripe, and on sending back - another one.

According to another version, the sign S is two Pillars of Hercules, which are entwined with a ribbon, that is, the Spanish coat of arms, symbolizing power and authority, as well as financial stability and steadfastness. The story goes that Hercules erected two rocks on the shores of the Strait of Gibraltar, in honor of his exploits. But the waves washing the rocks represent the letter S.

Another story says that the sign came from the abbreviation US-United States. But, in my opinion, the most interesting and more common is the story about the origin of writing the monetary unit of the peso. During the Middle Ages in Europe, the most common currency was the Spanish Real. They entered the circulation of England, and were referred to as "peso". In documents, "peso" was abbreviated to capital letters P and S. And then everything, people did not want to spend a lot of time writing letters, and they forced out the letter P, and only a stick remained, and the $ symbol turned out.

Here are a few more interesting information about symbols: for example, here is a story about that, and here interesting character- find out his story. Look also at, and of course here The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

And so on. things that you will find by looking through the rubric "".

Today we have the "dog" icon, which, if we stick to a scientific approach, is officially called "commercial at", it looks something like this: @. Familiar? Well, a dog, an “incomprehensible icon”, “but with a tail” and even a “monkey”. But mostly it's the dog. Why and where did this name come from? Many are perplexed, but still continue to say something like “Petrovinvest dog mail.ru” when dictating (for example, their Email on the phone). It doesn't always sound good.

Moreover, on the other end of the wire, he will most likely be understood correctly if he is not a foreigner or a Russian-speaking comrade who has long been living in a foreign land. For the latter, “dog” (especially if this word is translated into the language of the opponent) causes a stupor. The fact is that this designation took root only in Runet, and in bourgeois the @ symbol as soon as they don’t call it, but not like us. Curious, by the way, is the history of the appearance of this icon both on the keyboard and in Email addresses. Actually, this is what this post is about.

How to pronounce the @ sign correctly - dog, doggy or ...

So, in 99.9 percent of cases, our compatriots are forced to "stand out" in the process of oral transmission to someone. Despite the dominance of instant messengers, the usual email. mail is still the de facto main contact channel (in any case, the official one). Most often, it is Emails that are exchanged if necessary to contact or receive some materials (pictures, documents, etc.).

Well, if it is possible to write to the opponent "your soap" on a piece of paper or send it in an SMS message. The problem with the “dog” comes out precisely when it is necessary to transmit Email by voice. It’s not a problem to convey Latin characters using names (by first letters), but the @ sign not only confuses many, but makes you wonder if it would be correct to call it a “dog” (like a dirty word). And why actually "sobakevich"?

So, first things first. Yes, calling the @ icon a dog is perfectly acceptable(in any case, this jargon is not shy on television and in the press, although they can hardly serve as examples of correct behavior and expression of one's thoughts). However, it would be better to understand what in question, and if yours does not understand you, then quickly correct yourself and issue a different (officially correct, not jargon) sound designation of the @ symbol.

Actually, it's pronounced like "et"(from English at). This sign is written as "commercial at". Why commercial? Well, because on its own English word at is a preposition that has several translation variations in Russian (meanings - the Russian language is great and mighty). For example, it can be the preposition "on", "by" or "in" (sometimes "around"), but in general case he usually indicates the location.

By the way, that is why its symbolic designation (the @ sign) was chosen to display Email addresses. See how everything falls into place..ru”, i.e. But I ran ahead a bit. We had a question - why "@" is called the commercial at. Here again, everything is quite logical.

For abbreviations in English accounts (accounting documentation), several hundred years ago, it became customary to write a single @ sign instead of the word at. For example, like this: 7 articles @ 5 thousand rubles = 35 thousand rubles. If you decipher it, it will turn out: writing seven articles "for" 5 thousand rubles apiece will cost 35 thousand rubles. Thus, the question of why @ is called the commercial at can be considered finished. Go ahead.

Because accounts (accounting) is a serious matter, then with the advent of the first serial typewriters they began to add, in addition to ordinary letters and numbers, the sign "dogs" (in their language). Well, since personal computers largely inherited their layout from typewriters, then the @ symbol successfully migrated to the keyboards of PC users. So we followed pretty clearly.

But why exactly "dog" (et) was chosen as? Well, it's worth mentioning here that @ is used as a separator not only in email addresses, but also in . Using it, they separate the login with a password from, in fact, the address of the page being accessed (for details, see the link). But this format of Urls is rare, and for the vast majority of Internet users the stumbling block is in the email address.

As I already (hurriedly) mentioned a little higher, the addition of the “et” sign as a separator was quite logical (based on the meaning of the word at and the use of its analogue in the form of the @ symbol in bourgeois accounting). Those. any email address can be easily pronounce like: petrov on gmai.com (and it will be in the highest degree right and true).

Everything is clear and there are no questions with dogs. If you once again plunge into history, then a certain Tomlinson (a programmer, of course) was the first to introduce this type of recording into use already in shaggy 1971. With the help of this entry, the host (computer, server) was also separated, on which this very user had to be searched.

With a Russian-language keyboard layout, in order to insert the @ sign into the text, you will first need to switch to English language using hotkeys (depending on the OS settings, this can be done by pressing Shift + Alt or Shift + Control), or by clicking on the language selection icon in the tray (lower right area of the screen). @ lives above the number 2, i.e. to insert it, you will need to hold down Shift and press the deuce (for beginners in using a PC, I chew it).

So why is the @ symbol called a dog in RuNet?

Naturally, at that time, in the vastness of the Runet (which did not yet exist), no one knew about this. The initial computerization of the majority of the Russian-speaking mass of users began only in the 80s, and it was then that the jargon “dog” (dog) appeared to denote the sign separating the spelling of the Email address. Email mail in general was one of the first aspects that a novice PC and Internet user got acquainted with ().

There is no exact information about who or what triggered the viral spread of this meme (Internet jargon). There are several assumptions, and all of them are rightly based on the fact that in the 80s there were no graphics familiar to us - neither in games, nor in operating systems. Everything was test, or rather symbolic.

For example, in games, characters were displayed using various icons, and locations were also created. I still remember the flying-shooter that I spent money on in the Internet club during my childhood - everything was drawn there with arrows, sticks and stars. But what a buzz I experienced then from the game! It is no longer possible to understand, repeat or explain this now (one can only remember with longing).

So, there is several versions explaining the naming of the @ sign "dog" or "dog" (probably this option is more often used by ladies). According to one of them, it was the rpg game that was popular at that time that served as the starting point for the viral distribution of the meme (I personally did not play it, or I completely forgot). In it, along with the hero, a dog traveled, which either in whole or in part (her nose) was displayed using the @ symbol. In this case, the association is quite understandable and explainable.

According to another version, the special spelling of the @ sign on some computers that were popular at that time in runet was to blame for everything. This sign was drawn with a shortened tail and looked very much like a dog.

In addition, it was always displayed when loading, and once a name mentioned by someone could find support and begin to spread virally enough to break through the generation line, completely losing its original meaning.

What is the result?

In general, there is only one conclusion - the @ symbol is called a dog for a long time we no longer understand the reason. It's just a rudiment - everyone is talking and I'm talking. Is it worth it to continue this bacchanalia? Why not. This makes Russian-speaking netizens even more mysterious in the eyes of foreigners.

Although they themselves do not lag behind and often instead of the English “et” they pronounce something like “snail” (indeed, the @ sign looks like a snail - certainly more than a dog), “monkey”, “but with a tail” (trunk, curl), “duck”, “bun”, etc. (I would also add the statement “some kind of crap” by Voronin Sr. from the series, because it also fits). The imagination of people is limitless.

P.S. By the way, I want to correct myself. “Dog” (aka “et”), after all, found a residence permit not only in email addresses. It can be said that it has successfully established itself there as well. After all, the @ sign is always placed before the user's name, for example, when replying to his message.

Good luck to you! Before see you soon on blog pages

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