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Funny names for the @ sign | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6961 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 1 of 41 14 June 2006 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
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What is the French word to say "at" when referring to "@"?
Merci! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7185 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 41 14 June 2006 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I always say 'at' but in France some people say 'arrobase' (also spelled 'arrobas' or 'arrobase'.
I like better the French word for the sign & : esperlučte. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Guanche Hexaglot Senior Member Spain danielmarin.blogspot Joined 6855 days ago 168 posts - 178 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, RussianB1, French, Japanese Studies: Greek, Mandarin, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 41 14 June 2006 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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interesting...'arrobase' sounds pretty similar to Spanish 'arroba', therefore I think they share a common origin. 'Arroba' was an old mass unit (equivalent to 25 pounds or something like that) which was represented by the symbol @. Before the Internet era '@' was quite a rare symbol in Spain, but when the e-mail made its appearance, we had to find a Spanish name for it. I remember when I started using the Internet 12 years ago, we used to spell e-mail addresses calling '@' "that little weird symbol".
Fortunately, our beloved Real Academia de la Lengua decided to re-invent the term 'arroba' for us. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| breckes Triglot Groupie Belgium Joined 6608 days ago 84 posts - 89 votes Speaks: French*, English, Russian Studies: Italian, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 41 14 June 2006 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here is an explanation (in French) of the origin of the name "arrobe" for @ : Pourquoi l'ISO/CEI 10646 appelle-t-elle le signe @ une arrobe ?
It comes from the Spanish word, which himself comes from the Arabic "al-rub`", "the quarter". Edited by breckes on 14 June 2006 at 2:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6718 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 41 14 June 2006 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's a funny coincidence that this week's newsletter from About.Spanish has a link to the article The '@' Symbol in Spanish. :)
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 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6703 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 41 15 June 2006 at 2:48am | IP Logged | ||
I especially liked the copy of a manuscript from 1775 there, with something that looks very much like an e-mail address at the end of the text. If that's not being ahead of your times, what is? ;o) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6961 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 7 of 41 15 June 2006 at 3:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you!
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| Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6670 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German | Message 8 of 41 16 June 2006 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Actually some French-Candian spakers name "@" both as a commercial or "at" as it is said on this website:
AskOxford Edited by Alfonso on 16 June 2006 at 2:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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