How Did The Weird ‘@’ Symbol Make It Into The World Of Internet?

In this age of global connectivity, email and Twitter, we’ve seen a number of revolutions, most of which have used modern tools and techniques that human beings had hardly dreamed of in the past. The @ Symbol has become synonymous with our tech-savvy generation, but unlike many other new-age elements of communication, the history of this squiggly symbol stretches back centuries.

Ancient monks? Italian merchants hawking their wares? A computer scientist in Cambridge, Massachusetts? The story of the @ symbol is a long and strange ride, and one worth digging into.

The Long Tale (Tail?) of the @ Symbol

You may instantly associate the @ symbol with email, Twitter, and uber-modernity, but in fact, its origins stretch back more than half a millennia. With the earliest recorded use being in a religious text from the middle of the 14th century, its more frequent use appeared as a mercantile notation, a shorthand abbreviation for “at each”. For example, you might buy “6 Rolls @ $1”, which would total $6, whereas “6 Rolls at $1” would total $1.

In Latin, the abbreviation AD means to, towards, or at, but the peculiar way of writing in those ancient times meant that the d in “ad” had a tail that curled around the top of the “d” body. Eventually, the round body of the “a” and “d” merged, and the curled tail continued to encompass both, resulting in the @ symbol that we all recognize today. These centuries-old uses are found in France, Italy, and other European texts.

However, its widespread use declined significantly in the 19th century, and despite being an anecdotal part of European commerce and a globally understood symbol, it was not even included on early typewriters. It made a reappearance in the 1890s, but remained one of the least used symbols for printing and typing for decades