The At sign history is far richer and older than most people realize. Today, the @ symbol seems inseparable from our digital lives, appearing in every email address and every social media username. But its story stretches back nearly 3,000 years, linking ancient amphoras, Renaissance merchants, typewriters, and eventually, the internet age. What started as a simple shorthand has evolved into one of the most important cultural and technological symbols in the modern world.
The @ symbol in everyday life
Look at your keyboard, and you’ll see many symbols—%, &, #, *, $. But none carries the same cultural weight as the @ sign. It’s the backbone of email, the tag that ties online conversations together, and the foundation of digital identity.
Yet this symbol’s journey began long before computers, when amphoras of wine and grain shaped global trade. The At sign history shows us how a humble flourish of handwriting eventually became the plumbing of the internet.
Ancient origins: amphoras and commerce
According to historians, the At sign history begins with the amphora—an iconic clay pot used by the ancient Greeks to store wine, oil, and grain. These tall, narrow vessels became so essential that they evolved into a unit of measurement for trade.
By the Middle Ages, European merchants often needed shorthand for recording how many amphoras of goods they were selling. Instead of writing the full word, they drew a stylized “a” with a long tail looping around. This flourish eventually evolved into the symbol we know today as @.
One of the earliest known uses of the symbol comes from a letter dated May 4, 1536, written by Italian merchant Francesco Lapi. In it, he used @ to indicate an amphora of wine, valued at 70–80 ducats. This document remains one of the clearest links between the amphora and the commercial shorthand that shaped the At sign history.
From flourishes to function: @ in manuscripts
Interestingly, the @ sign also appeared even earlier—in a 1375 Bulgarian manuscript, where it decorated the first letter of the word “amen.” In this context, it was simply an artistic flourish, not a symbol with meaning.
But by the Renaissance, the symbol’s purpose had become clear: it was used widely by traders to denote goods and pricing. The At sign history is therefore deeply tied to global commerce, centuries before the internet existed.
The rise of the typewriter
The next great leap in the At sign history came in the 19th century with the typewriter. As businesses expanded and mail-order catalogs exploded in popularity, accountants and clerks needed efficient ways to document transactions.
Typewriters became a staple of office administration, and the @ symbol was included on most models due to its importance in commerce. Despite some machines lacking basic characters like “1” and “0,” the @ was considered essential enough to include.
This decision ensured the symbol’s survival across generations of typewriters, embedding it into business and accounting long before the digital revolution.
The email revolution: Ray Tomlinson’s breakthrough
The most transformative moment in the At sign history came in 1971, when American computer scientist Ray Tomlinson was working on ARPANET, the precursor to the modern internet.
He wanted a way to send messages between users across different computers. Looking at his keyboard, he spotted the @ symbol, then mostly ignored outside accounting. He used it to separate a user’s name from their host computer, creating the format we now recognize as the email address: user@host.
On that day, Tomlinson sent the first-ever email, cementing the @ as one of the most important symbols of the digital era.
Global names and cultural variations
As email spread across the globe, so did the @ sign, and with it came a host of new nicknames:
- In Italy, it’s called chiocciola (“snail”).
- In Russia, it’s sobaka (“dog”), because it resembles a curled-up pet.
- In Hebrew, it’s strudel.
- In Dutch, it’s apenstaartje (“monkey’s tail”).
- In Czech, it’s zavináč (“rollmops,” a pickled herring roll).
- In Greek, it’s “little duckling.”
- In Taiwan, it’s “little mouse.”
This playful diversity highlights how the At sign history has transcended borders and cultures, adapting in ways that reflect local traditions and humor.
The @ symbol and identity
Beyond communication, the @ sign also reshaped how people think about themselves online. In the age of social media, the @ symbol is more than a connector—it forces us to create new digital identities.
When you choose a handle like @username, you compress your identity into a single, unique word without spaces or punctuation. Linguists argue that this process is deeply personal, even emotional, as usernames often reflect personality, creativity, or aspirations.
Changing your handle can feel almost as intimate as changing your name offline. The At sign history is therefore not just about commerce or technology—it’s about identity and self-expression in the digital world.
Modern adaptations and inclusive language
The @ symbol continues to evolve. In Spain and Latin America, it has been adopted as a tool for gender inclusivity. For example, the word “amigos” (friends, masculine) and “amigas” (friends, feminine) can be combined as “amig@s” to represent both genders in a neutral form.
This creative repurposing of the @ shows how a centuries-old commercial shorthand continues to adapt to modern cultural needs.
The @ sign’s enduring cultural weight
From ancient amphoras to Renaissance trade, from typewriters to email, the At sign history demonstrates the power of symbols to adapt across eras. What began as a flourish of handwriting became the backbone of digital communication and a marker of online identity.
Today, @ is so embedded in our daily lives that we barely notice it—yet it carries with it thousands of years of human history. It is proof that even the smallest marks on our keyboards can tell the grandest stories.
Conclusion
The At sign history is more than a story of punctuation. It’s a 3,000-year saga of trade, language, technology, and identity. From clay amphoras to Instagram handles, the @ sign has always been about connection—whether between merchants and buyers, or between billions of people online today.
It remains one of the clearest symbols of humanity’s ability to adapt, innovate, and find meaning in even the simplest shapes.
Source: BBC Innovation
