Not to be confused with Commercial art refers to art that is made for the purposes of commerce. ...commercial art.

A commercial at, @, also called an at symbol, an at sign, or just at, is a symbolic abbreviation for the word at. Its formal name comes from its commercial use in invoices, as in, "7 Widget is a general_purpose term for any unspecified device, including those that have not yet been invented. ...widgets @ £2 ea. = £14". It is also known as: about; ampersat or asperand (compare The roman ampersand on the left is stylised, but the italic one on the right is clearly similar to et. An ampersand (&) is a logogram representing the word and. ...ampersand); amphora; ape; arobase; atgry; cabbage; cat; cinnabun or cinnamon bun; commercial symbol; cyclone; each; mercantile symbol; rose; schnable; scroll or scroll_a; snail; A strudel is a type of Austrian pastry. ...strudel; these; vortex; whirlpool; or whorl. Some of these are based on specialized usage, others are visual descriptions, and atgry (plural atgrynge) is a recurring joke proposed on Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ...Usenet as the answer to a longstanding linguistic A riddle is a puzzle, consisting of text with a question to answer. ...riddle [1]  (http://www.commonplacebook.com/humor/usenet/faq.shtm).

Modern uses

The symbol's most familiar modern use is in An e_mail address identifies a location to which e_mail can be delivered. ...e_mail addresses (sent by Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the de facto standard for email transmission across the Internet. ...SMTP), as in jdoe@example.com ("the user named jdoe working at the computer named example in the com domain"). Raymond Tomlinson (born 1941) is a programmer who first used the @ symbol for sending email in 1972. ...Ray Tomlinson is credited with the introduction of this use in 1972.

In the An alternate rewrite has been has been proposed. ...programming language Programming Republic of Perl logo Perl, also Practical Extraction and Report Language (a backronym, see below), is a programming language released by Larry Wall on December 18, 1987 that borrows features from C, sed, awk, shell scripting (sh), and (to a lesser extent) from many other programming languages. ...Perl, the symbol prefixes In computer science and mathematics, a variable is a symbol denoting a quantity or symbolic representation. ...variables which contain In computer programming, an array, also known as a vector or list, is one of the simplest data structures. ...arrays, as opposed to The concept of a scalar is used in mathematics and physics. ...scalar values (indicated with ' Alternate uses: Dollar (disambiguation) The dollar is the name of the official currency in several countries, dependencies and other regions (see list below). ...$') and In computer science, a hash table is a data structure that speeds up searching for information by a particular aspect of that information, called a key. ...hash tables / In computing, an associative array, also known as a map, lookup table, or dictionary, is an abstract data type very closely related to the mathematical concept of a function with a finite domain. ...associative arrays (' A percentage is a way of expressing a proportion or a fraction as a whole number. ...%'). If the code were to be treated as a sentence, this prefix would be the equivalent of a Determiners are words which quantify or identify nouns. ...determiner, so "@animals" might be read as "these animals".

History

A commonly accepted theory is that the symbol is derived from the Latin _ Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...Latin preposition "ad" (at). The @ is supposed to be a In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more letterforms are written or printed as a unit. ...ligature developed by transcribing monks. However no document showing this usage has been presented.

A more recent idea concerning the history of the @ symbol has been proposed by Giorgio Stabile, a professor of History is a term for information about the past. ...history in The Roman Colosseum Rome (Italian and Latin Roma) is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region. ...Rome. He claims to have traced the symbol back to the By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance _French Renaissance _German Renaissance _English Renaissance Origins Northern Italy in the 14th century was divided into a number of warring city states, the most powerful being Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, and Venice. ...Italian Renaissance in a Venetian mercantile document signed by Francesco Lapi on May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). ...May 4, Events February 2 _ Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Argentina. ...1536. The document talks about commerces with Francisco Pizarro ( 1475–June 26, 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, conqueror of the Inca Empire and founder of the city of Lima. ...Pizarro and in particular the price of an @ of wine in The Republic of Peru (Spanish: Perú; Quechua, Aymara: Piruw) is a country in western South America, bordering with Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the east, south_east and south, Chile to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...Peru. The symbol is still called arroba in This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ...Spanish and it represents a unit of weight with the same name (1 arroba = 25 U. S. pounds), an old (Antonio Nebrjia, For other places named Salamanca, see Salamanca (disambiguation). ...Salamanca, Events January 2 _ Boabdil, the last Moorish King of Granada, surrenders his city to the army of Ferdinand and Isabella after a lengthy siege. ...1492) Spanish/Latin dictionary translates arroba with amphora. Under this view, the symbol was used to represent one Pottery An amphora is a type of ceramic vase with two handles, used for the transportation and storage of perishable goods and more rarely as containers for the ashes of the dead or as prize awards. ...amphora, which was a unit of Weight is the force exerted upon an object by virtue of its position in a gravitational field. ...weight or Volume (also called capacity) is a quantification of how much space an object occupies. ...volume based upon the capacity of the standard Terra cotta is a hard semifired waterproof ceramic clay used in pottery and building construction. ...terracotta jar. The symbol came into use with the modern meaning "at the price of" in northern Europe.

"Commercial at" in other languages

• In Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...Dutch, it is called apenstaartje ("little For the TV show Monkey see Monkey (TV series) Cynomolgus Monkey at Batu Caves, Malaysia A monkey is any member of two of the three groupings of simian primates. ...monkey_ This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...tail").
• In The Kingdom of Spain or Spain ( Spanish: Reino de España or España; Catalan: Regne dEspanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma; Galician: Reino da España) is a country located in the southwest of Europe. ...Spain, The Republic of Portugal (República Portuguesa), or Portugal, is a democratic republic located on the west and southwest parts of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe; it is the westernmost country in continental Europe. ...Portugal and The Federative Republic of Brazil (República Federativa do Brasil in Portuguese) is the largest and most populous country in South America, and fifth largest in the world. ...Brazil, it denotes a weight of about 25 Officially the pound is the name for at least three different units of mass: The pound (avoirdupois). ...pounds. The weight and the symbol are called arroba. (In Brazil, Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ...cattle is still priced by the arroba __ now rounded to 15 KG, Kg or kg may indicate: A Kampfgeschwader, a bomber squadron of the former German Luftwaffe An abbreviation for kilogram (always kg) Kongo language (ISO 639 alpha_2) Knight of the Garter, a British decoration An abbreviation for konig or king Kyrgyzstan (ISO 3166_1 alpha_2 country code) KG...kg)
• The French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...French name is arobas ou arabesque (from the Spanish weight measure) or a commercial, and sometimes In French cuisine, escargot is a dish of cooked land snails. ...escargot (" Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica) The name snail applies to most members of the molluscan Class Gastropoda that have coiled shells. ...snail"). Other names include queue de singe (monkey_tail) and a dans le rond (a in the circle).
• In Esperanto flag Esperanto is a constructed international auxiliary language. ...Esperanto, it is called ĉe_signo ("at"), po_signo ("each" __ refers only to the mathematical use) or heliko ("snail").
• In The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro_Asiatic language family. ...Modern Hebrew, it is colloquially known as Strudel (שטרודל). The normative term, invented by the The Academy of the Hebrew Language (האקדמיה ללשון העברית) is the Supreme Foundation for the Science of the Hebrew Language, that was founded by the Israeli Government in 1953. ...Academy of the Hebrew Language, is krukhit (כרוכית), which is a Hebrew word for Strudel.
• The Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Repubblica Italiana or Italia) is a country in southern Europe. ...Italians call it chiocciola (" Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica) The name snail applies to most members of the molluscan Class Gastropoda that have coiled shells. ...snail").
• In German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...German, it is Klammeraffe, meaning "clinging For the TV show Monkey see Monkey (TV series) Cynomolgus Monkey at Batu Caves, Malaysia A monkey is any member of two of the three groupings of simian primates. ...monkey", or kaufmännisches A, meaning "commercial A".
• In Danish is one of the Scandinavian languages, a sub_group of the Germanic group of the Indo_European language family. ...Danish, it is either grisehale (" Binomial name Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 The domestic pig is usually given the scientific name Sus scrofa, though some authors call it , reserving for the wild boar. ...pig's This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...tail") or snabel_a ("(animal's) trunk_a").
• In Finnish is spoken by the majority (92%) in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. ...Finnish, it is ät_merkki, according to the national standardization institute SFS. Other names include kissanhäntä, ("cat's tail") and miukumauku ("the miaow sign").
• In The Korean language is the most widely used language in Korea, and is the official language of both North and South Korea. ...Korean, it is golbaeng_i (골뱅이), a dialectal form of daseulgi (다슬기), a small freshwater snail with no tentacles.
• In Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania, spoken by about 4 million native Lithuanians. ...Lithuanian, it is eta (equivalent to english at but with Lithuanian ending)
• In This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. ...Mandarin Chinese, it is xiao laoshu (小老鼠), meaning "tiny For the input device, see computer mouse. ...mouse", or laoshu hao (老鼠號, "mouse sign").
• In Persian (فارسی), also known as Farsi (local name), Parsi (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (an Afghan dialect), is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. ...Persian it is at (using the English pronunciation).
• In Polish (polski, język polski) is the official language of Poland. ...Polish, officially it is called atka, but commonly małpa (monkey) or małpka (little monkey).
• In Romanian (limba română ) is an Eastern Romance language, spoken by about 28 million people, most of them in Romania, Moldova (where it is the official language) and nearby countries. ...Romanian, it is Coadă de maimuţă (monkey_tail) or "a_rond"
• In Russian (русский язык  listen?) is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. ...Russian, sobaka (собака) (dog) or lĭaguška (лягушка) (frog).
• In Swedish (svenska  listen?) is a Scandinavian language language spoken predominantly in Sweden, Finland and Åland by over 8 million native speakers. ...Swedish, it is called snabel_a ("(elephant's) trunk_a")
• In This article needs cleanup. ...Slovenian, it is called afna (little monkey)
• In The Hungarian language is a Finno_Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in adjacent areas of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, Slovenia (all territories lost after World War I). ...Hungarian, it is called kukac (worm or maggot).
• In The Czech language is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian, and Sorbian. ...Czech and The Slovak language (slovenčina, slovenský jazyk) is an Indo_European language, more precisely a West Slavic language (together with mainly the Czech, Polish, and Sorbian languages). ...Slovak, it is called zavináč (rolled pickled herring).
• In Norwegian is a Germanic language spoken in Norway. ...Norwegian, it is officially called krøllalfa ("curly Alpha (uppercase Α, lowercase α) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. ...alpha" or "alpha twirl"). (The alternate alfakrøll is also common.)
• In Catalan (Català, Valencià) is a Romance language spoken by as many as approximately 12 million people in portions of Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, although the majority of Catalan speakers are in Spain. ...Catalan it is called arrova or ensaïmada, the roll brioche tipical from The flag of Majorca Majorca (Mallorca in Catalan and Spanish __ the spelling Mallorca is also frequently encountered in present_day English __ from Latin insula maior, later Maiorica major island) is one of the Balearic Islands (Illes Balears Catalan official name), which are located in the Mediterranean Sea and are a...Majorca.
• In The Japanese language is a spoken and written language used mainly in Japan. ...Japanese it is called "at mark" (アットマーク) a combination of English words, known as Wasei_eigo (和製英語 wasei eigo, lit. ...wasei_eigo.
• In Turkish (Türkçe or Türk dili) is a Turkic language, spoken natively by over 100 million speakers in Turkey, Cyprus, and worldwide. ...Turkish it is at (using the English pronunciation).
• In The Greek language (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA – Hellenic) is an Indo_European language with a documented history of some 3,000 years. ...Greek it is called παπάκι (small duck).

The commercial at corresponds to In computing, Unicode is the international standard whose goal is to provide the means to encode the text of every document people want to store in computers. ...Unicode and There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ...ASCII For alternate meanings, see character. ...character 64, or In mathematics, hexadecimal or simply hex is a numeral system with a radix or base of 16 usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F or a–f. ...0x0040.

References

External links

• A Natural History of the @ Sign (http://www.herodios.com/herron-tc/atsign.html): Names in various language
• Linguist's view (http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/7/7_968.html)
• Article about the history of @ (http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/whereat.htm) Contains more names in other languages