What do you call it "@"

[Boris Tatarenko]

I've just realized I have no idea what we call this sign "@".
Can you enlighten me?

One more question:
How would you read the sign here: my email is xxx @ blabla.com?

Thanks.

 

[Matthew Wai]

The 'at' sign.

Not a teacher.

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello.:-D
I've found this.
(We call that "at mark" in Japanese, by the way.)

 

[BobK]

There is an annoying tendency among the pig-ignorant to call it an atpersand (which gets over 40,000 hits on Google). A little learning is a dangerous thing. An "&" is indeed called an ampersand, but this is an abbreviation - with assimilation of the /nd/ to /m/ - of And - per se 'and'. So the analogue would be atpersat.

But what's wrong with 'at sign'?

b

 

[Matthew Wai]

How would you read the sign here: my email is xxx @ blabla.com?

I would just say 'at' but not 'at sign', 'at mark' or 'at symbol'.

Not a teacher.

 

[Tdol]

When reading an email address, we just say at.

 

[bhaisahab]

In French it's called "arobase". Some people are using that word for it in English.

 

[emsr2d2]

I've yet to hear that in English. I call it the "at sign" and when reading or reciting an email address, just say "at".

 

[SoothingDave]

I have never heard "arobasee" and would never expect it.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Who said anything about arobasee?

Arobase has been a French word for centuries and comes from the Castilian 'arroba' which is an ancient unit of measure. Its symbol has always been @.

There is no need for the word in English though, and I don't know why anyone would want to improve on 'at'.

 

[emsr2d2]

bhaisahab mentioned the word and then said "... some people are using it in English". I assumed he had heard some native speakers using it.

 

[BobK]

That Wikipedia link does mention arrobase, but I'm yet another addition to the people have never heard it. (In fact when I saw it I wondered whether my mental voice should 'say' /beɪs/ or /ɑ:z/). Perhaps it's used in Canada...?

b

 

[Tdol]

I haven't heard things like at mark/sign/symbol for a long time- I did hear them when email was starting to take off, but outside discussions on the symbol, it's always at now IMO.
Arrobase is new to me too. It might be like octothorp(e) for #, which I only see in threads on the topic.

 

[bhaisahab]

It's "Arobase", with one "r". On reflection, the only English people I have known use it are those who speak French.

 

[BobK]

Incidentally, assuming Boris is still tuned in, the question in the title should be either 'What do you call this: "@"?' or just 'What do you call "@"?' (In the first one you could exchange the pronoun 'this' for a phrase like 'this sign/mark/character/glyph/thing...'

b