Threw vs Through

[DeanoC]

While looking around the net about English I found this great site (i don't agree with it) but it helps explain why learning English is a bitch

http://www.spellingsociety.org/pubs/leaflets/whyeng.html

The best bit is near the bottom, where they blame all the problems on one bloke. Over 1 billion people speak English and most of us have had the odd problem, its all his fault

"Dr. Johnson stamped his authority on English spelling with his famous dictionary. In his day many words were still spelt differently by different writers. He chose his preferred versions, or linked different meanings to different spellings, e.g. 'there - their', paying very little heed to pronunciation. Many of our worst problems are due to him. His work is now very much due for a revue.
"

 

[DeanoC]

Does anyone know where the "@" originates from? Saw a post on it ages ago at Ars Technica, it was bloody fascinating!!!

I would also just like to add in the words of the infamous Ali G, "Is it cos I is black?"

AFAIK Its shrouded in mystery, two story I've heard are
@ = ae, ae used to be common in middle english (I think) and it would often be written as a @ by lazy monks.
Or
Lazy monks got fed up of writing 'at' all the time, so the shortened it to @ (considering I find at easier to write 'at' I'm not sure I believe this one but...)

 

[Tahir2]

The "@" symbol is present in many languages from what I read at Ars Technica... and lazy monks.. hehehe that's funny.

 

[Tagrineth]

@ originally was used for prices.

Like 3 pretzels @$.99 (each).

 

[Mariner]

"Dr. Johnson stamped his authority on English spelling with his famous dictionary. In his day many words were still spelt differently by different writers. He chose his preferred versions, or linked different meanings to different spellings, e.g. 'there - their', paying very little heed to pronunciation. Many of our worst problems are due to him. His work is now very much due for a revue."

Ooh - I can't wait! Will it be "Dr. Johnson: The Musical"? I'm sure Andrew Lloyd Webber isn't too busy at the moment so he can probably whack some music out in no time at all.

I can recommend a book about the English language which was written by Bill Bryson. It's entitled "Mother Tongue" and is well worth a read.

 

[DeanoC]

The "@" symbol is present in many languages from what I read at Ars Technica... and lazy monks.. hehehe that's funny.

All the accounts I've heard involve Lazy Monks that (to me) doesn't make any sense, I'm sure they got sick of 'at' or 'ae' but surely they would have got rid of something the really took a long time before saving about 2 strokes (Like drop caps, any body who is going to send several days on a single letter isn't going to worry about @)

@ originally was used for prices

That use came much latter, presumebly when the realised they they had a 'spare' as the no longer had any Lazy Monks (Printed Press and Henry VIII got rid of all those Lazy Monks).

 

[Tahir2]

This sign originated as a scribe's quick way of writing the Latin word ad, especially in lists of prices of commodities. It is usually known as `the at sign' or `the at symbol', which is good enough for most people. It is sometimes called `commercial a', and occasionally by the French name arrobe or arroba. It has acquired various nicknames in other languages, but none has so far caught on in English.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutsymbols/atsign

 

[Tahir2]

Some translations of the "@" symbol:

Translations of @
Czech: zavinac (pickled herring)
Russian: sobachka (little dog)
Italian: Chiocciola (small snail)
Hebrew: strudel (Austrian cake)

Im adding my own, 'squiggly thing next to the semi-colon and I dont care if you have an american keyboard layout and it's not there dammit!!!'

 

[Tahir2]

I apologise for labouring over this, but do ya know that really irritating itch ya get that you just can't reach? It bugs you and bugs you and is the most important thing in life, more important than Duff to Homer Simpson if I may illustrate my point? Well I been feeling like that looking for that arstechnica newspost.

I finally found it (thanks Google)...

http://www.arstechnica.com/archive/2001/0701.html

2001? Man I thought I only read it a few months ago.. time sure does fly when you are aging!

Here is the article they linked to:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,24139,00.html

But last July an Italian researcher discovered some 14th-century Venetian commercial documents clearly marked by the @ sign, where it was used to represent a gauge of quantity, the "anfora," or jar. Giorgio Stabile also found a Latin-Spanish dictionary dating from 1492 where "anfora" is translated into "arroba," a measure of weight. It's therefore natural that, in 1885 the "commercial a" was included on the keyboard of the first model of Underwood typewriter and from there migrated into the standard set of computing characters (such as ASCII) 80 years later.

Tag could be right.

Some think it originated in the early Middle Ages, when monks laboring over manuscripts contracted the versatile Latin word "ad" - which can mean "at" or "towards" or "by" - into a single character. Most linguists, however, say that the @ sign is a more recent invention, appearing sometime during the 18th century as a commercial symbol indicating price per unit, as in "5 apples @ 10 pence." Yet another linguist, researcher Denis Muzerelle, says the sign is the result of a different twist, when the accent over the word "à" used by French and German merchants was hastily extended.

Or it could be the more popular theory the DeanoC mentions.

I killed the itch, I am threw with that damn @ symbol (for now). 8)

 

[Humus]

Some translations of the "@" symbol:

Translations of @
Czech: zavinac (pickled herring)
Russian: sobachka (little dog)
Italian: Chiocciola (small snail)
Hebrew: strudel (Austrian cake)

Im adding my own, 'squiggly thing next to the semi-colon and I dont care if you have an american keyboard layout and it's not there dammit!!!'

Swedish: Snabel-a (Trunk-a) (unofficial)

 

[RussSchultz]

I assume you mean trunk as in the nose of an elephant.

 

[Tahir2]

I assume you mean trunk as in the nose of an elephant.

No, I mean trunk as in the boot of a car.

 

[Humus]

Trunk as in the elephant face.

 

[Thowllly]

Norwegian: alfakrøll (alpha curl, I think...)

Snabel-a and a lot of others are also used...

 

[RussSchultz]

http://www.ilovebacon.com/043003/k.shtml

For a list of of those nasty words that can mean 2 different things based on their pronunciation.

 

[Tahir2]

http://www.rathergood.com/elephants/

Some elephants for Russ and Humus.

 

[Humus]