The History of the @ Sign Last Updated: 06-24-2010 , Posted:
06-24-2010 In 1972, Ray Tomlinson sent the first electronic
message, now known as e-mail, using the @ symbol to indicate the
location or institution of the e-mail recipient. Tomlinson,
using a Model 33 Teletype device, understood that he needed to
use a symbol that would not appear in anyone's name so that
there was no confusion. The logical choice for Tomlinson was the
"at sign," both because it was unlikely to appear in anyone's
name and also because it represented the word "at," as in a
particular user is sitting @ this specific computer. However,
before the symbol became a standard key on typewriter keyboards
in the 1880s and a standard on QWERTY keyboards in the 1940s,
the @ sign had a long if somewhat sketchy history of use
throughout the world. Linguists are divided as to when the
symbol first appeared. Some argue that the symbol dates back to
the 6th or 7th centuries when Latin scribes adapted the symbol
from the Latin word ad, meaning at, t