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I'm afraid that I have no idea. Is it an "at"? A techy student claims that it's called a "monkey" but I'm not so sure.

I always called it an "at sign" and apparently I'm not alone, as I googled 332,000 hits for "at sign."

http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com ... 12,00.html

And this, which was interesting:

http://www.herodios.com/herron_tc/atsign.html

I've always known it as "curly at" I notice that that is missing from "A Natural History of the @ Sign." I can confirm that the Poles use "Malpa"=monkey, surprisingly this seems to be the formal term. Then again the Polish language compares just about everything to an animal or body part.

"Kulak" wasn't nearly as prevelent in Turkey.

"Arobase" would seem to be the most appropiate term it sounds formal and is just one word. It seems this went from Arabic to Spanish to French to English changing its meaning as it went, just like "hazard".

By the way, did you know that the origin of ampersand, the name for the "&" symbol is "and per se and" This symbol had its origin in people writing the Latin word "et" quickly.

Thanks both. A mine of information.

Lorikeet wrote:I always called it an "at sign" and apparently I'm not alone, as I googled 332,000 hits for "at sign."

http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com ... 12,00.html

And this, which was interesting:

http://www.herodios.com/herron_tc/atsign.html

<I always called it an "at sign" and apparently I'm not alone, as I googled 332,000 hits for "at sign." >

AT SIGN TURN LEFT