Re: Official name for the @ symbol?

[Kevin McLauchlan <KMcLauchlan -at- CHRYSALIS-ITS -dot- COM>]

Er, yeah.  It was named "commercial at" (i.e., used in commerce)
and was "pronounced" as you indicate... except that most people
just abbreviated to "at", as in  "3 units at $11.56 each".

That is, people who *used* it in every-day life... just used it, and
didn't usually name it. People who dealt peripherally, like printers,
type-setters and high-school "Commerce" (or more usually, Shop
and HomeEc and Typing) teachers called it "the commercial 'at' sign".

For that matter, you still see itemized invoices with the
columns for Item #, Unit, Qty, etc....  where the unit gets
filled in as "ea", for "each" (to distinguish from "gross" or
"carton" and so on). I don't know why they didn't say
"singles" or some other unit name... maybe it would have
abbreviated inconveniently. But everybody in wholesale and
retail knew what "ea" meant in the units column of an order
or an invoice.    "I'll have twenty 'eaches', please."  :-)

STOP!  I sense a second-rate Monty-Python routine coming
on.  Don't go there...


Kevin McLauchlan
kmclauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com    (aka  kevinmcl -at- netrover -dot- com)
Techy writer, duffer skydiver, full-time unrepentant chocoholic

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Zengler, Sunny (Tampa) [SMTP:szengler -at- GENPHYSICS -dot- COM]
> Sent: Monday, April 26, 1999 9:56 AM
> Subject:      Re: Official name for the @ symbol?
>
> Lo, these many centuries ago when I was in school, this was the "at the
> rate
> of" sign...  Another abbreviated prostitution?


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