Signin history

Well known sign @ has a long history.

Medieval monks used this symbol to contract the word “ad” (modern “at”), in the 15^thcentury Spanish merchants used it to shorten measure of weight called “arroba” (about 11.5 kg) and capitalists had this sign to designate price. In 1971 the inventor of e-mail, Ray Tomlinson, used this sign to fill the algorithm “name – sign – place”.

Different countries give different names to @ sign. In Poland it is called “monkey”, in Taiwan – “mouse”, in Russia – “dog”, in Sweden and Denmark – “elephant’s proboscis”, in Finland – “cat’s tail”. Chinese have imagination than the others. They call @ sign “letter “a” in a circle”.