How to put a badge "dog"? Why @ is called a "dog"

Ampersand, slash, circumflex, octotorp, asterisk - are all of these names familiar? But most people see them every day, but do not always know that their names sound exactly like that. But this is just k, i, q, q and *, respectively. And how about finding out where the "dog" icon came from, where it is used and why is it called?

History

@ Occurs in medieval texts, but the name of the person who first began to use it is unknown. At that time, the monks wrote it to replace such prepositions and constructions as "in", "on", "in relation to", etc., that is, the Latin ad. In addition, in France and in Spain, this sign was met to designate one of the weight measures - arroba, equal to 11.5-12.5 kg. In some trade documents, the badge "dog" met when it was about wine. Therefore, experts believe that the vessels for drinks - amphorae - were also designated.

Later, it was used by traders when issuing commercial accounts. With the invention of printing machines and typewriters, the icon "dog" settled on their keyboards. And after the advent of computers, I moved there. In connection with its function in English, it was called commerical at. Since before the advent of computer keyboards in the USSR this sign was unknown, in Russian its more or less official name so far has not been acquired. Despite the fact that in old manuscript books one can meet characters remotely reminiscent of @, they are still not that familiar. So it is understandable why he did not receive an established and unified verbal designation. In colloquial speech, several titles are used at once. So why is the icon called "dog"? There are several possible reasons.

Why the "dog"?

In Russian there is no official translation of the name of this badge, 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 Russian, as in others, there are other, less well-known names of this symbol, but they will be discussed later. So why is the icon called "dog"? Truth, of course, is no longer recognized, but there are several possible reasons:

• By itself, the symbol @ resembles a sleeping dog that has curled up into a crochet.
• The English name of this symbol resembles a dog barking, although it could hardly affect what this symbol was named exactly.
• Finally, the most likely option: at a time when computers were much less accessible than today, many specialists were addicted to the Adventure game, which used different characters to refer to surrounding characters and objects. The main character had a loyal companion - his dog. It is not difficult to guess which symbol was used for its designation.

Besides this name, there are many more titles for @. Curiously, what else is called this icon.

Other names in Russian

In addition to various unprintable expressions, here and there alternative names for "dogs" are used: "monkey", "krakozyabra", "zakoryuchka", "ear", "snail", "cat", "rose", "frog" and others. As a rule, 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 the usual names @ are also associated with "bestial" themes.

In other countries

Many foreigners believe that @ looks like a strudel, which, incidentally, is not so surprising, there is an outward similarity. In France and Spain, the old designation "arroba" was preserved. In some countries, the name is associated with the letter "a" most similar to the "dog" icon. In Serbia, for example, the name "crazy A" is used, and in Vietnam - "twisted A".

And still, when communicating representatives of different countries, as a rule, @ is called at. With the spread of the Internet, this became necessary, at least in order to quickly dictate to someone his email address. By the way, the "dog" was recognized as such a significant symbol that in 2004 it even received its own code in the Morse code.

By the way, the very popular name @ in Russian became the subject of numerous jokes. Since this symbol is most often found in email addresses, and the first part of them are names or nicknames of users, sometimes everything sounds quite comical.

How to print?

The dog icon on the keyboard is located so that it is almost impossible to find it. In addition, the Russian layout does not, because it is not needed there. After all, it is simply not used by Russians in their native language and writing. In the English layout of the standard keyboard, @ is on key 2. How do I print the "dog" icon? Very simply - hold down the Shift key, click on the 2 upper numeric keypad. In other layouts, this does not work. If you really need @, you can copy it from any email address. There is another way how to put the icon "dog" - open in a text editor, for example, Microsoft Word, the menu for inserting special characters. Find the required is not difficult, in the same window you can specify a combination of keys, with which it will be possible to type @ in the future.

Using

It is believed that part of its modern functional load "dog" owes to the man who was the first in 1971 to send an e-mail in the Arpanet network, which is considered the progenitor of the modern Internet - Ray Tomlinson. Someone even ascribes to him the invention of this symbol, but this is not so. Now @ is used as a separator for the names of the mailbox itself 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 else's name, so confusion with identifiers could not arise. It is this field of application that is most noticeable to ordinary Internet users, however @ is used not only here. It is also present in programming languages. There the icon serves for various purposes: in PHP it turns off 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 particular noun neutral by birth for some reason, that is, @ replaces a or o.

It may seem that this symbol is not so much needed, but it is not. Replace the "dog" is almost impossible, and it's not worth it - everyone has already got used to it.