MYSTERY BEHIND THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE @

The symbol @ does not call for any introduction as it is multifaceted with uses in the different domains. The status of the universality of this symbol outlines its long back story. What makes me write on this topic is, its umpteen applications in the IT industry that is beyond our knowledge. Being in the translation industry, I was surfing to get to know about the translations of this peculiar symbol in different dialects but to my rescue, I got the bizarre results. The @ holds no translations. I know it’s weird but irrefutable fact.
  

Let’s go back in the 16^th century when traders employed this symbol in Europe and Asia as a sign of measurement a quarter of a hundredweight, tantamount to a weight of between 11.5 and 13 kg. It is the subject of the reign where it was used, and emanated from the term ar-rub, Arabic portrays its meaning as “one-quarter.”

With the frequent changes in the symbol, the Spanish dictionary holds different view apropos to its origin by bringing the spotlight on the adverbial phrase “por arrobas,” or “by the @” ( arroba is the word designated to the symbol @ in Spanish) means more than enough, or plethora or excessive. Earlier, it linked up the products with the unit prices and the scenario is same in many countries called @ as commercial at. what added more jazz to this is, its insertion on the typewriter keyboard in the United States in the late nineteenth century, later adopted by the computer.

The trends in the history of the sign @ commenced, when Ray Tomlinson on June 21, 1971 sent the first email in history picking this sign and marked a line between the domain name and the user name, thus the beginning of new stride with its use in the email addresses.

During the mid-90s it continued to be used with the full throttle as stamps or mailboxes years earlier. A new story cropped up when the twitter added more curiosity by using this sign to represent the username of an account holder on the site.

Unequivocally, Spanish and Portuguese have referred this sign as a derivative of its historical name, “arroba,” but the situation is not similar to other dialects. For instance in @ refers to as “snail,” as well as in Korean (dalphaengi). Nevertheless, another name in support of it is “volvita A,” which means “wrapped A.”

Why leave animal kingdom behind? This symbol also has the role to play here as “elephant’s trunk” or “pig’s tail” in Danish; “cat’s tail” in Finnish; “little mouse” in Mandarin; “worm” in Hungarian and a lot more.

The roadmap behind the semantics of this peculiar symbol is yet to unveil and is under construction but the fact is this symbol is unique in itself and has no translations.(TRANSLATION SERVICES IN NEW YORK)