How old is the oldest city in the world. The oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Jericho, West Bank

Everyone who uses e-mail knows for sure that the name of any mailbox contains an incomprehensible at first glance either a letter, or an icon, or a symbol that looks like @. Some Internet fans call this icon the main pop symbol of popularity. And if you could hear about this, then not everyone knows that in 2004 the International Telecommunication Union introduced the “dog” into Morse code.

History of the @ sign

Strange as it may sound, but an Italian researcher named Giorgio Stabile, studying the archives of the Institute of Economic History in the city of Prato near Florence, discovered a very strange phenomenon. It turns out that the “dog” familiar to us is first found in written documents that date back to 1563. The document talked about the fact that 3 merchant ships arrived in Spain, and as cargo on board there were containers with wine, which were indicated by the @ symbol.

After a little thought and analysis of the then market, the scientist came to the conclusion that the @ sign in those days denoted such a unit of wine measurement as an amphora or "anfora". It was a universal measuring unit for measuring volume.

However, there is a second version of the appearance of this strange sign. Now a US scholar named Berthold Ullman has suggested that the @ sign was invented by medieval monks, who used it to shorten the word "ad", which was also universal and had several meanings: "on", "in", "in relation to" and some others.

However, the true origin of this actually mysterious symbol is still unknown.

commercial at

In the modern world, the @ symbol is officially called “commercial at” and it originates from business. For example, it could be found in such an inscription as “7 widgets @ $2 each = $14”, which in translation would sound like “7 pieces of 2 dollars = 14 dollars”.

And since it was difficult to make any calculations without this symbol, the first Underwood typewriter in history, which was released in 1885, already had this symbol.

Later it was inherited by the computer keyboard. But what is noteworthy, in the USSR, the @ symbol was not known to anyone until the first computers appeared here.

But how did this strange symbol appear in the names of our mailboxes? For this we must thank the computer scientist Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 sent the world's first e-mail. In this case, the address consisted of 2 halves.

The first is the username, the second is the name of the computer on which the user is logged on. And to separate one from the other, Ray Tomlinson chose an icon on the keyboard that was not in either of the two halves. And by chance it was the @ symbol.

How the commercial at (@) got the name "dog"

In fact, they have not yet come to a consensus here either, and today there are several versions of why the @ symbol began to be called “dog”.

1. Verviya the first: The icon looks like a dog curled up.

2. Version two: if you pronounce the English word at several times in a row, it will be like a dog barking.

3. Version three: if you have imagination, then in this symbol you can find all the letters that are in the word "dog". Well, if only with the exception of the letter "k".

But for big romantics, there is another version, which most users adhere to. In the old days, there was a fairly popular game "Adventure", which translates as "Adventure".

The player had to wander through the labyrinth, look for treasures and fight against a variety of enemies. The labyrinth on the screen was drawn with symbols, the enemies were indicated by letters and icons, but the treasure hunter's faithful dog was indicated by the @ sign.

However, history is silent about whether the badge for the dog was not chosen because it was already called that.

Where else is the @ symbol used?

1. In chemistry, when writing formulas - [email protected]

2. In Europe, there is even such a sign "@", which means that this place has free access to the Internet.

3. Sometimes it is used to replace the anarchy symbol, since it is simply impossible to write this sign on a computer.

4. In some European languages ​​it is used in informal correspondence.

5. The international student organization AIESEC uses this sign in informal correspondence as a symbol of the organization.

This is our "dog". At first glance, a simple icon, but in fact, there is a whole story behind it!

Monuments to the "electronic dog"

Today in Russia there are 2 monuments to the electronic dog. The first of them is installed in Chita, the second in Orenburg. They also wanted to erect a monument to the “dog” in the Moscow region, but so far this remains in the plans.

Monument in Chita- This is a cement slab, the size of which is 1.5 by 1.5 meters. The plate is installed directly on the sidewalk and took the place of 9 ceramic tiles that were in this place. The monument was erected in just half a day. It took 40 kg of cement. Residents of the city are proud that the first monument to the @ symbol in Russia appeared in their city.

And this year another one was opened and this event happened in Orenburg on the territory of Perovsky Park. This is a large amusement park that young people like to visit, and besides, there is free Internet, so the choice of the place was not accidental.

"Electronic Dog" is not just a button on the keyboard. This is a symbol that has its own history, and as it turned out, this history is long and interesting.

E-mail is used by almost everyone who, one way or another, is connected with computers. But few people wondered how the “@” symbol, used in an email address and popularly referred to as a “dog”, appeared.

The history of the “dog” goes back to 1971, when programmer Ray Tomlinson was working on a program for exchanging electronic messages and using the “@” symbol, which is not found in English names and surnames, to be able to forward letters from one computer to another.

Meanwhile, @ is a ligature (connection of letters) denoting "at". The exact origin of the symbol is not known, but according to one hypothesis, this is an abbreviation for the Latin ad. The name "commercial at" takes its origin from the accounts. Since the symbol was used in business, it was placed on the keyboards of typewriters, 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 measure of weight, which was indicated by the @ sign when writing.

In the USSR, this sign was unknown before the advent of the computer, and got its name with the spread of a computer game, where, according to the scenario, the symbol “@” ran across the screen and denoted a dog. In addition, translated from the Tatar "et" means - "dog".

The symbol is read differently in different countries. Here are some examples:

In the USA - at ("the at sign".)

In Bulgaria, klomba or maimunsko a ("monkey A").

In the Netherlands - apenstaartje ("monkey's tail").

In Italy they say "chiocciola" - a snail.

In Denmark and Norway they use "snabel-a" - "snout a".

In Taiwan, a mouse.

In Finland, the cat's tail.

In Greece - "little pasta".

In Hungary - a worm, a tick.

In Serbia - "crazy A".

In Sweden, an elephant.

In Vietnam - "twisted A".

In Ukraine - dog, doggie, tsutsenyatko (Ukrainian - puppy)

The "@" symbol has many uses these days. In addition to e-mail and other Internet services, the symbol is used in many programming languages.

In 2004, for the convenience of transferring e-mail addresses, the International Telecommunication Union introduced the code for the symbol @ (• - - • - •) into Morse code.

Comments

2009-09-16 16:24:25 - Leschinskaya Lyudasha Aleksandrovna

To be honest, I didn't know anything like that. very funny and interesting. in short, just super and thanks in advance for the top five

2009-11-19 22:49:21 - Sergey Alikberov

Everything is much less romantic. Moreover, it is technocratic. The name of this badge was given by electronic engineers at the dawn of Runet. "Dog" is called a part of the cam mechanism, which, due to its shape, very similar to this icon, allows the axes of the mechanism to rotate only in one direction, i.e. blocks them, like a dog not allowing you to pass.

2010-01-30 10:40:12 - Vasily

Dub @ you, "technocrat" Alikberov. When @ was called a dog, there was no Runet yet. There was only e-mail... You probably crawled 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 Bunin

Alikberov Sergey, but to prove it?

2010-02-03 21:52:57 - Sergey Alikberov

Vasyatka, you read what is written: "... part of the mechanism ... similar to this badge ...". 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 the barking of dogs ...

2010-04-18 17:50:09 - Maslennikova Inna

tell me how to make it so that the computer shows this dog, otherwise it doesn’t write a fig ... thanks in advance.

2010-05-25 17:39:53 - Arina

Please tell me HOW TO ENTER THIS DOG TO THE COMPUTER?

2011-03-25 19:17:27 - Arina

Everything has been disassembled. you have to press shift+2

2011-11-21 15:13:10 - Sasha 2013-07-23 19:14:27.547251 - Nastya 5+

thanks for peterky

2014-11-14 20:14:28.002529 - Motkov Dmitry Romanych

I This... I'm at the expense of the mechanism..., the cam... in the Soviets... the language does not turn, rockets!!! And about the winder in the clock, knowledge is weak? A dog in mechanics IS A COMMA, however !!!

2015-07-28 18:42:40.495166 - DARIA VOLKOVA

HOW TO MAKE THIS DOG?

2015-10-22 06:19:53.824886 - zihor Vyacheslav Vasilyevich

so cool

2015-11-25 19:57:44.046673 - Totikova Alina Evgenievna

And what was the name of this game with a dog (@) in the USSR?

2017-10-02 20:01:07.131344 - Pogadaev Victor

In Indonesian, this icon is called E snail (E keong)

I am glad to welcome dear users on the page of my blog. Many jargons from the global network have tightly entered our lives. These memes include cake, trouble, life hack, trolling, and so on. However, among all the common and gaining popularity of Internet jargon in Runet, the first place is occupied by “dog”.

This icon, familiar to the entire Internet audience, has an official name - "commercial at", and it looks like this: @. On the web, it is used to designate an address. It separates the username from the hostname. Therefore, everyone who has visited any site at least once has come across it. At the same time, it is called differently in different countries:

• Holland - monkey and tail, in the original apenstaartje;
• Ukraine - doggie;
• Spain - arroba, which means a measure of weight;
• Italy - snail, the original word is chiocciola;
• PRC - mouse;
• Denmark - elephant trunk and other names;
• Germany - the tail or ear of a monkey;
• Israel - strudel.

This is only a small part of the names of the @ symbol in different countries, and in Russia it is a "dog" for most users. Despite the fame, few people know why the "dog" is called that. The symbol is called so all the time, when, for example, they dictate their email address in a personal conversation or on the phone. All people have long been accustomed to this. Therefore, the other interlocutor understands everything and correctly writes down the voiced email address.

An exception may be a foreigner, who is more likely to go into a stupor, unless he lives in Russia or constantly communicates with Russian people. The thing is that the @ sign is called "dog" exclusively by Russian-speaking users. The history of the appearance of this symbol in the addresses of electronic mailboxes and on the “clave” of a computer is also interesting. This is what I will talk about next.

The correct pronunciation of the @ sign

Almost always, Russians pronounce the word "dog" when dictating their email address. It still represents the main official channel for contacts. The popularity of email is not affected even by a large number of instant messengers from different developers. Through e-mail, users often send official letters and exchange various media files, including photos and short videos.

When an e-mail address is transmitted verbally, it is at this point that the so-called "dog" problem appears. At the same time, it is absent when writing an email on paper or when it is transmitted using an SMS message. The problem is that the word "dog" is in certain situations like a curse. Therefore, many people have to think before pronouncing it. At the same time, some of them have a question: “why does the @ sign have such a name?”.

To fully answer this question, you need to understand everything in order. So, the @ symbol is really commonly called a "dog". Confirmation of this jargon is the use of this word both on television and in the press. However, the media is not always a role model for expressing one's thoughts and even behavior. Therefore, everyone needs to know how the @ symbol is officially called, so that if necessary, you can quickly convey to the interlocutor what you have in mind if, for example, he is a foreigner.

At the official level, the @ sign correctly sounds like "at". English-speaking users designate it with the word "at". This is where the pronunciation comes from. Moreover, in English this word is a preposition. In translation into Russian, it can have a different meaning. It directly depends on the constructed phrase. Therefore, in standard encodings, the symbol "dog" is specified as "commercial at".

English "at" translated into Russian means location. However, it can still be used as a preposition, for example, "in", "by", "on", and in some cases this English word can be used as "about". In connection with this translation, the @ symbol was chosen to denote electronic addresses. And then everything falls into place. So, having an email address, for example, [email protected], it can be sorted out: a user whose name is 12751013 on the mail.ru server.

However, we need to return to the question: “why is at commercial?”. Because some of the most meticulous accountants in the world, the British began to use the @ symbol as an abbreviation of the preposition "at" several centuries ago when compiling accounting documentation. For example, 11 rolls of fabric @ 2000 rubles = 22000 rubles. In other words, 11 rolls of 2000 rubles. will cost 22,000 rubles. This is why at is commonly considered a commercial pretext.

Its use has become so commonplace that with the invention of typewriters on such devices, the @ symbol has gained its own place in the row of numbers and punctuation marks. Subsequently, with the advent of personal computers, which inherited the layout from typewriters, the “dog” sign also began to be used on the keyboard. Now you know the path from the appearance of the @ symbol to the beginning of its use in designating electronic addresses that appeared in the 2nd half of the 20th century.

So anyway, why was "dog" chosen to split the email address? Here we need to clarify that this symbol is used not only in email, but also when writing a URL. In the latter case, @ is used to separate the username and password from the address of a particular page. However, this way of writing URLs is rarely used.

The @ sign has also found its place on Twitter. You can see him on this social network, which is a popular miniature blogging, when a response message is typed. This symbol must be written before the name of the responding user. After that, he migrated to modern templates for forums and other social platforms.

It was already mentioned earlier that using @ when writing an email address is quite logical in connection with the meaning of the preposition at. In other words, a person can voice their email like this: ivanov on mail.ru. This pronunciation of the email address does not contradict any rules and is 100% correct!

It is worth noting that the programmer Tomlinson came up with the idea of ​​recording email in the form it has now. This designation first appeared in 1971. The @ symbol separated the username from the server.

When the Russian layout is used on the computer, then in order to write “dogs”, it is first necessary to switch to English. This action is performed using special keys. For such purposes, the combination Shift + ALT is used. Shift + Control is also often used. In addition, switching can be done by clicking the language icon on the taskbar, selecting the desired layout.

Why is the name "dog" chosen?

There are various versions of why it is customary to call the @ sign in Runet a “dog”:

1. The symbol is very much like a dog curled up.
2. The abrupt pronunciation of "at" is a bit like a dog barking.
3. If you strain your imagination and look closely at the outline of the sign, then you can see almost all the letters that are necessary to write the word "dog". The exception is "k".

In addition to these options, there is one legend. It has romantic overtones. So, many decades ago, when the first computers were large devices with displays that were exclusively text, people played the game "Adventure" (English name "Adventure"). In it, users went through a maze created by the PC. They needed to find treasures, while killing various creatures living underground.

Symbols such as "-", "+" and "!" were used to draw the labyrinth on the monitor. At the same time, different signs and letters were used to designate the player, treasures and monsters. The game was also attended by a dog, which was a faithful assistant to the playing person. He usually performed reconnaissance in the maze at the player's command. But it was the @ symbol that was used to designate it.

This legend is silent about whether it is the reason for the appearance of the name "dog" for the @ sign. It is also worth mentioning that among Russian-speaking users this symbol is also called:

• frog;
• ram;
• dog;
• bun;

The familiar name of the @ sign in Russia appeared in the 80s of the XX century. At this time, the computerization of the population began in the country. During this period, people in Russia began to gradually get to know what e-mail is. And those were only selected users.

Instead of a conclusion

To understand exactly why the sign "dog" is so called, none of us today can be 100% able to recognize. Time is lost and tails will not be found. The name of the @ symbol has already become a tradition: I say it because everyone says it. Should we continue to use this name? Some may strongly disagree with this. Some, on the contrary, believe that the name "dog" makes us all mysterious personalities in the eyes of users from other countries, with the exception of the CIS countries (perhaps only for the time being).

However, foreigners are also not far behind us. Instead of "et", they use some of their own name, for example, snail. In many countries, users associate the @ symbol with an animal, in other states - with a herring roll or a delicious strudel.

But you, my readers, will now know exactly what is hidden behind the little squiggle in your e-mail address.

The well-known @ sign as one of the central concepts of Internet culture has been around for several decades. It appeared at the very beginning of the 1970s, when an American engineer Ray Tomlinson, who is credited as the inventor of email, made it the "separator" in address names. Tomlinson himself called the @ sign "the only preposition on the keyboard" (in English, this sign is read as the preposition at).

In Russia, users most often refer to the @ symbol as “dog” or “doggy”, which is why email addresses formed from personal names and surnames sometimes take on an unusual sound. In the 1990s, when they tried to translate the @ sign into Russian, there were many equal options: “krakozyabra”, “squiggle”, “frog”, “ear”, “ram” and others. In fact, they have now practically disappeared.

What are the versions of the origin of the "dog"?

There is no exact information about what specifically triggered the viral spread of this Internet jargon. There are a number of assumptions, and all of them are based on the fact that in the 1980s there were no graphics familiar to today's Internet users. Everything was textual, or rather, symbolic, recalls an IT specialist Dmitry Ivanov.

For example, on monitors of personal computers of the DVK series, the @ sign was drawn with a very short "tail", which really gave it a resemblance to a schematically drawn dog. Also, the @ symbol could be seen on the emblem of the international amateur non-profit network FidoNet, whose popularity peaked in the mid-1990s. The FidoNet logo depicts a dog, and the @ sign is located in the center of its muzzle and acts as a nose.

According to the programmer Igor Belyakov, another popular version of the origin of the "dog" is associated with the 1979 computer game Adventure, one of the first in the action-adventure genre. Its essence consisted in the passage of a maze written in the computer's memory. The labyrinth consisted of the signs “!”, “+„, “-”, and the character, treasures, monsters were designated by various letters and signs. According to the plot, the main character was accompanied by a dog, which could be sent on various tasks. It was denoted by the @ symbol.

What is another name for the sign "dog" in other countries?

In other countries, "dog" is also often called very skillfully and not without imagination. For example, in Spain - as a measure of weight and volume, arroba. In Italy - chiocciola, "snail", in Denmark - snabel-a, which can be translated as "a with a trunk." In Poland and Germany, in computer slang, the @ symbol is called a paper clip, monkey, monkey ear or monkey tail. In some countries, the computer "dog" is called "crooked a" or "crazy a".

Ampersand, slash, circumflex, octothorp, asterisk - are these names familiar to everyone? But most people see them every day, but do not always know that their names sound exactly like that. But it's just & , / , ^ , # and * respectively. How about finding out where the "dog" icon came from, where it's used, and why it's called that?

Story

@ is found 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 Spain, this sign was used to designate one of the measures of weight - arroba, equal to 11.5-12.5 kg. In some trade documents, the symbol "dog" was found when talking about wine. Therefore, experts believe that vessels for drinks - amphorae - were also designated in this way.

Later, merchants began to use it when issuing commercial invoices. With the invention of typewriters, the "dog" icon settled on their keyboards. And after the advent of computers, he migrated there too. In connection with its function in English, it was called commerical at. Since this sign was unknown before the advent of computer keyboards in the USSR, it has not yet acquired its more or less official name in Russian. Despite the fact that in old handwritten books you can find symbols that vaguely resemble @, they are not such a sign. So it is clear why he did not receive a well-established and unified verbal designation. In colloquial speech, several names are used at once. So why is the icon called "dog"? There are several possible reasons.

Why "dog"?

There is no official translation of the name of this icon in Russian, 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 also other, less well-known names for this symbol, but they will be discussed a little later. So why is the icon called "dog"? The truth, of course, is no longer known, but several possible reasons are given:

• The @ symbol itself resembles a sleeping dog curled up in a ball.
• The English name of this symbol is somewhat reminiscent of a dog barking, although this could hardly affect the fact that this symbol was called that way.
• Finally, the most likely option: at a time when computers were much less accessible than today, many experts were fond of the Adventure game, which used various symbols to indicate the surrounding characters and objects. The main character had a faithful companion - his dog. It is not difficult to guess what symbol was used to designate it.

In addition to this name, there are many other names used for @. I wonder what else this icon is called.

Other names in Russian

In addition to various non-printable expressions, in some places alternative names for "dogs" are used - "monkey", "krakozyabra", "squiggle", "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 common names @ are also associated with the "animal" theme.

In other countries

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

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

By the way, it is the most popular name @ in Russian that has become the subject of numerous jokes. Since this character is most often found in email addresses, and the first part of them is the names or nicknames of users, sometimes the whole thing sounds quite comical.

How to print?

The dog icon on the keyboard is located in such a way that it is almost impossible to find it by accident. In addition, it is not in the Russian layout, since it is not needed there. After all, it is simply not used by Russians in their native speech and in writing. In the English layout of the standard keyboard, @ is on the 2 key. How to print the "dog" icon? Very simple - hold down the Shift key and press the 2 upper numeric keypad. It doesn't work in other layouts. If @ is very necessary, you can copy it from any email address. There is another way to put the "dog" icon - open in a text editor, for example, Microsoft Word, the menu for inserting special characters. Finding what you are looking for is not difficult, in the same window you can set with which it will be possible to print @ in the future.

Usage

It is believed that the “dog” owes part of its modern functional load to the person who first sent an email in 1971 on the Arpanet network, which is considered the progenitor of the modern Internet, Ray Tomlinson. Some even attribute to him the invention of this symbol, but this is not so. Now @ is used as a separator between 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's name, so there could be no confusion with identifiers. It is this area of ​​application that is most noticeable to ordinary Internet users, but @ is used not only here. It is also present in programming languages. There, the icon serves a variety of purposes: in PHP it disables the output of possible errors, in Perl it acts as an array identifier, and so on. 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 gender neutral for any reason, that is, @ replaces a or O.

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