Talk:At sign
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[edit] Merge from Commercial at
I propose merging the article Commercial at into this article (@), leaving a redirect from there to here.
Reason for merge: both articles are principally about the symbol "@" in general.
Reason for using "@" as title: "Commercial" creates the false impression that the article is only for the symbol's use as related to commerce; indeed, it looks like confusion over the term "commercial" is why the two articles branched apart to begin with. Krubo 20:35, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
[edit] move to at sign
imo the name of an article should be the name of the symbol not the symbol itself. If there are no objections i therefore propose moving this to "at sign". I cannot make the move as a normal user because the redirect there was edited in the past hence . Plugwash 29 June 2005 16:40 (UTC)
- Agree. All other articles on punctuation marks and similar symbols are listed at the symbol's name, not the symbol itself (see Template:Punctuation marks). --Angr/tɔk tə mi 29 June 2005 17:47 (UTC)
- Comment: Why not "at" or "at symbol"? As the article says, those are both common names for the symbol. NatusRoma 30 June 2005 05:53 (UTC)
- Oppose: The current title is simple, straightforward, and unambiguous. People would always be bickering about which phrasing is better anyway ("at sign" versus "at symbol" etc.) —Mulad (talk) June 30, 2005 06:25 (UTC)
- Support Article titles are names of things, not the things. At sign is unambiguous, and the most commonly-used name in my experience. —Michael Z. 2005-06-30 18:01 Z
- Comment: The letter Þ is there, not at its English name thorn, and that isn't as easy to type on most keyboards in the English-speaking world. I am currently undecided about this. Jonathunder 2005 July 8 01:20 (UTC)
-
- There's currently a discussion about moving it back to thorn (letter). —Michael Z. 2005-07-9 23:28 Z
- judging from the history of Thorn (linguistics) that article seems to have been moved arround quite a bit. Plugwash 23:59, 9 July 2005 (UTC)
- There's currently a discussion about moving it back to thorn (letter). —Michael Z. 2005-07-9 23:28 Z
- Support: "at sign" or "at symbol" Dragons flight 20:38, July 9, 2005 (UTC)
- Support. "At sign" is the most common term among speakers of the English language. —Lifeisunfair 03:10, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
This article has been renamed after the result of a move request. violet/riga (t) 20:10, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
I have removed the following paragraph as it has no grounding wahtever in research. could someone justify where this wholly biase point of view comes from?
Many Spanish speakers feel that this use of the "@" is degrading to their language, and some allege that it is an example of cultural imperialism. This construction is generally only used in informal writing.
Would anyone be interested in explaining the history of the joke behind calling '@' by the name of 'atgry'? I read the referenced link, but that only gave me the punchline - what's the joke? Peruvianllama 05:29, 4 October 2005 (UTC)
- What English word ends in "gry" besides hungry and angry? Circulating around the net in the mid-90's, but has no conventional or commonly-accepted answer... AnonMoos 02:30, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Anarchy
I am adding to the section of various uses that it is also used online as a representation of the circle-a anarchy sign. (see anarchist symbolism)The Ungovernable Force 06:56, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Removing ""Commercial at" in other languages"
Hi guys,
I'm quite perplexed at seeing this section. Interwiki links already cover this, don't they? --Gennaro Prota 01:23, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
- Hmm... I withdraw this, sorry. With interwiki links only, we wouldn't have the translation of the non-English names, of course. --Gennaro Prota 01:29, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Objections to Modern Usage
I think the Modern Usage section has been abused. Some are appropriate, but most others belong in elsewhere (Technical Usage section?) if at all.
Certainly the bit about emails is apropos since it jumps to mind immediately. But after that, the section quickly degrades into anarchy. The bit about perl hardly falls into modern usage unless perl has suddenly befallen to the general masses. Would you expect a discussion of perl's syntax in an encyclopedia article on a typographic mark?
If perl wasn't bad enough, we descend into IRC? Even worse, it covers ridiculous over-the-top politically correct linguistically-objectionable BS about gender neutral pronouns and pikachu.
My point is that none of that stuff belong in "Modern Uses" section where mainstream usage belongs. Other crap should be under "Technical and otherwise obscure usage" section. (my personal vote is to get rid of all of it outright.)
[edit] Guys, check this URL out-
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3148 Good stuff, credible source. Look it over and amend the the designated article as is appropriate. Sorry, I'm too lazy to do it myself. . .isn't it enough I fished up a good source on a subject with notoriously hazy reference material? Armando Vega a.k.a. MondoManDevout 00:53, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Malagasy
Please, someone clarify, what does the Malagasy word amin'ny mean! I'm dying of curiosity. -Oghmoir 18:25, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "sometimes mistakenly called an ampersand"?
This seems a rather odd line to have at the beginning of the article. I've never heard anyone make this mistake in my life! Is it really so common? (and is this "verifiable"?) Encyclopedias should hardly be listing wrong information! :)--feline1 17:18, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Mandarin Chinese in not spoken in Taiwan
I'd prefer if someone discussed this issue before reverting my changes. Of course Taiwanese people do speak Mandarin Chinese, but the translation for the "at sign" in the article is in Taiwanese Chinese, a separate dialect of Chinese, and so it is misleading to put it under "Mandarin Chinese" as opposed to "Chinese" in general. --82.36.97.200 13:18, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
I don't get it. You just immediately admitted that Mandarin Chinese is spoken in Taiwan. As stated in Mandarin (linguistics): "Standard Mandarin functions as...the official spoken language of the Republic of China (Taiwan)". Also, an overwhelmig majority of the Taiwanese population speak Mandarin natively or fluently. "Xiao laoshu" is clearly Mandarin Chinese pronounciation.—Tokek 16:51, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
The headline was to put the point across forcefully, although indeed it isn't strictly correct as Mandarin is one of the dialects spoken in Taiwan. Nonetheless, I find it strange that there is a special way of saying "at sign" only in Taiwan that could be nonetheless be considered as part of the Mandarin dialect -- one can't have it both ways! Thus I maintain it would be clearer not to put the definitions under "Mandarin Chinese", but just "Chinese". --147.188.28.207 13:20, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] In Icelandic it is called "the earmuff."
What is the Icelandic word for "the earmuff"?
[edit] Animation
I'm sorry to complain, but trying to read the article with constant animation in my field of view is just impossible and infuriating. I'll replace it with a static image. —Michael Z. 2006-09-15 19:22 Z
- I've replaced it with a static image which is much less distracting. It also lets the reader compare the different stages of evolution. —Michael Z. 2006-09-15 19:42 Z
[edit] Self-referential use in this article
The at sign, commercial at, or just the at is used in email addresses, and sometimes in financial documents or commercial inventories. It does not belong in this article as an abbreviation for its own name. I'll do some clean-up. —Michael Z. 2006-09-15 20:12 Z
[edit] Each Sign
I am surprised the article fails to mention long before it was the "AT" sign it was called the "Each" sign. I worked in grocery stores and we always used it to mean each. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 63.40.152.181 (talk • contribs).
- Actually, the symbol means "at". "2 apples @ 30 cents" means "two apples at thirty cents [each]". If the symbol meant "each", it would be written as "2 apples [at] 30 cents @". Anyway, I find it hard to believe that you were working in grocery stores long before it was called the "at" sign. :D --Quuxplusone 00:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] contradiction
From TFA:
- The origin of @ is debated, but is most likely a cursive form of ā, or possibly à (the French word for 'at').
and
- The at sign appears to have evolved from the Norman French "à" or ā, an abbreviation of an unknown word beginning with a.
I'm inclined to remove both sentences because neither is sourced, and sourcing is omfg important, srsly. 66.92.170.227 19:29, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Incorrect?
Its most familiar modern use is in e-mail addresses (sent by SMTP), as in jdoe@example.com ("the user named ‘jdoe’ working at the computer named ‘example’ in the ‘com’ domain").
this isn't meant to be the computer named 'example' is it? its the user at the example.com domain...90.240.106.198 23:57, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
