Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!SAIL.STANFORD.EDU!CAB
From: CAB@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU (Chuck Bigelow)
Newsgroups: comp.laser-printers
Subject: @
Message-ID: <8804052022.AA16708@brillig.umd.edu>
Date: 5 Apr 88 19:02:00 GMT
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	Received: from cch.bbn.com by SAIL.Stanford.EDU with TCP; 28 Mar 88  11:50:31 PST
	Date: Mon, 28 Mar 88 14:54:07 EST
	From: "Bruce E. Nevin" <bnevin@cch.bbn.com>
	Subject: @
	To: cab@sail.stanford.edu
	Cc: bn@cch.bbn.com

	Do you know the origin and etymology, so to speak, of the @ sign?

		Bruce


It was originally Latin "ad" = `at'. And that's what it still meeans.
In fast cursive handwriting the ascender of the `d' curves
over to the left and the bowls of the a and d merge. It thus
became a logograph in the medieval era.
--Chuck Bigelow