The at sign is a symbol that is frequently used in computing.
Arroba is a term whose etymology refers us to the Arabic language , more precisely to a term that can be translated as “fourth part” . According to the first meaning mentioned in the dictionary prepared by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), an arroba is a unit of mass whose weight is equivalent to 11,502 kilograms (a quarter of a quintal ).
The arroba, as a unit of measurement, stopped being used in the mid- 19th century . In any case, it is still used in rural sectors and even as a measure of a fluid whose weight depends on the region.
Arroba in computing
Currently, the notion of at is very popular in computing . A is the symbol used in an email address ( email ) to distinguish between the user's name and the domain to which the service in question belongs.
The arroba (which is often expressed in the masculine: the arroba) is a symbol made up of a letter a with a circle around it. In the English language, it is pronounced as at , which can be translated as “in” . In this way, the email address indicates that the account of a user X is hosted “on” a certain server.
Social networks such as Twitter (today X ) and Instagram , for their part, use the at symbol to name their users. For example: @unicefenespanol is the UNICEF Twitter handle in Spanish . If a person starts following @unicefenespanol , they will therefore be able to read the tweets published by this user on their timeline.
In email, the at sign separates the username from the domain.
The influence of social networks
The popularity of the at sign has grown in recent years, precisely thanks to the importance of its use in these social networks , and little by little it has become detached from its exclusive relationship with email, an area in which the majority of users learned about it in the early 90s. In Spanish-speaking countries, unlike what happens in English-speaking countries, it is read by name and does not have a connotation that helps us understand why we use it, with which people outside of computing have had to work harder to get used to it.
Another sign that has become very common thanks to the massification of social networks is the numeral ( # ), which in English is called a hashtag . In this case, Anglo-Saxon pronunciation has become widespread in almost the entire world, although with certain concessions to adjust to the phonetic characteristics of each language. In any case, both the at sign and the numeral are synonymous with communication, trends or "being up to date ."
How to write the at sign
Writing the at sign is an action that can present certain difficulties, even if they are minor, especially on the computer and by hand. While phones always present us with the symbol when it may be necessary, such as when entering our email address or searching for a user on a social network, computer keyboards present an extra challenge: they require the combination of two keys to generate it.
This can cause confusion for less expert users, especially those who have approached computing through mobile phones. But the complication increases when the keyboard is configured in a language different from the one used by the operating system, since then it is very likely that it will be of no use to us to observe the signs and symbols printed on its buttons, but rather we will have to memorize the appropriate combination. Drawing it is also difficult for some people, as much as the & sign, which is called et or, according to its name in English, ampersand .