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Examples
Origin
Usage

Pop Culture dictionary

at sign

or @ [at sahyn]

Published April 13, 2018

What does at sign mean?

Theat sign is near commonly found in e-mail addresses and on social media, where information technology is used to tag specific users in posts.

The symbol,@, can likewise stand in for the wordat in everyday writing and in online conversation, where it is often used as a verb.

Where does at sign come from?

at sign

wikimedia

The exact origins of theat sign are unknown. One theory thinks monks created the symbol to save infinite on valuable manuscript newspaper by combining the letters of advertising, the Latin word for to(ward). Another theory supposes French writers made it upwardly to reduce pen strokes required to write à, or at.

The first known written record of theat sign comes from a letter of the alphabet written by Francesco Lapi in 1536. A merchant from Florence, Lapi used the symbol as a unit of measurement for shipping wine. Most likely stemming from this use, theat sign was found useful past other merchants and, afterwards, commercial grocers and bookkeeping professionals. They used the symbol to signal per-unit of measurement toll. For instance, "5 apples @ $5 each" means that the total toll of 5 apples would be $25.@ became useful enough to merit inclusion on commercial typewriters by the 1880s.

Theat sign was start used in electronic mail addresses in 1971. Ray Tomlinson, a computer scientist who worked for BBN Technologies, was tasked with networking early on computers to a precursor to the cyberspace in a fashion that would let messages to be sent between them. He used a two-function address to send and receive messages, with the sender or recipient's name first and their calculator'due south identifier 2d. To carve up the two, he chose a lilliputian-used fundamental on the keyboard: @.

Examples of at sign

kid in white shirt sitting across from jolly holiday in disneyland please meet me @ the castle tonight i'one thousand in honey with yous

@calistabarnes_, March, 2018

Bipolar disorder "does not have to ascertain you lot," @MariahCarey told @People, "and I turn down to allow information technology to ascertain me or control me."

@thelilynews, Apr, 2018

I wasn't able to score tickets to run into the touring company of Hamilton, because I didn't have a house to mortgage and also, I don't similar Hamilton. Don't @ me.

Courtenay Hameister,The Portland Mercury, April, 2018

Who uses at sign?

Today, theat sign is widely used as a tool of the internet. It is most unremarkably found in email addresses to divide the username from the domain proper name and in social-media handles (eastward.yard., @dictionarycom), particularly on Twitter and Instagram. Most major social-media platforms permit users to tag others by typing "@" then another user's handle, which acts equally a form of digital address.

By the 2010s, the at sign had become so widespread as a way to tag someone on social media that people began using it as a verb, to at or @ someone, or "mention someone directly in a bulletin." The verb is especially common in the phrasedon't @ me. This phrase nods to theat sign's role in tagging users in posts. When a social-media user says "don't @ me," they are sharing a potentially unpopular opinion and humorously requesting that those who disagree with them refrain from responding, specially by tagging them in a reply. Someone posting "don't @ me" recognizes that they have shared a controversial opinion, and they volition probable be engaged in debate anyway. This makesdon't @ me a indicate of playful controversy rather than an earnest asking not be @'d or atted (withattinga fairly common verb on Twitter).

Outside of the internet, people use theat sign as shorthand for the discussionat in everyday writing, most often in reference to times, dates, and places of scheduled events (e.g., See you @ the eatery @ 7pm!).

Note

This is non meant to be a formal definition of at sign like most terms nosotros define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an breezy word summary that hopefully touches upon the cardinal aspects of the meaning and usage of at sign that volition help our users expand their word mastery.