WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Grammar Minute: History of the @ (At Sign)

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Hint: This punctuation marks long predates email. Learn more on today's episode of Grammar Minute!

Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we're saving the English language 60 seconds at a time. I'm Lauren Smith and I'm back with another weird history of punctuation marks. It's time for the at symbol. Nobody has any idea where this thing came from. It's at least 800 years old and at the time of its first use had nothing to do with Instagram handles or email addresses. The earliest known text containing this symbol used it to replace a capital A. In various languages it was used to refer to units of weight or volume or a short form of on-the-es-es-examines. the day of, until recently, it probably didn't have much to do with the word at. In the 1970s,

a computer engineer set up an email system using the at sign, and the rest is history. He later joked that he probably single-handedly saved the at sign from going the way of the sent sign on computer keyboards. That's your Grammar Minute. Visit thegrammerminant.com for more tips and tricks.