Where does the @ symbol come from?

We write it every day in every email address and every social media handle. The @ symbol is today one of the most used characters in the digital world. But, curiously, the internet didn’t invent it: it has centuries of history behind it. Its journey is fascinating.

A symbol far older than the internet

The @ wasn’t born with email. It’s a very old symbol, and although its exact origin is debated, we know it was already used centuries ago in writing and commerce. One popular theory suggests that medieval monks created it as an abbreviated way to write the Latin word ad (“toward” or “at”), joining the letters into a single stroke.

A unit of weight and trade

In the Spanish-speaking world, “arroba” (the name of the @) is also an old unit of measurement. For centuries, an arroba equaled a weight of about 11.5 kilos (varying by region), used to trade wine, oil, and other goods. In fact, the symbol’s name in Spanish comes precisely from that unit.

Over time, in commerce the @ came to be used in English with the sense of “at the rate of” or “at the price of”: for example, “5 apples @ 2 dollars” meant 5 apples at 2 dollars each. That’s why the character was present on typewriters and, later, on the first computer keyboards, though it was hardly used.

The moment that changed everything: 1971

Here comes the decisive turn. In 1971, engineer Ray Tomlinson, considered the creator of modern email, had to solve a problem: how to separate the user’s name from the machine’s name in an email address?

He looked for a character that didn’t appear in people’s names to avoid confusion, and his eye landed on that little-used key: the @. It had the perfect meaning (“user at such-and-such machine”) and clashed with no name. So the address took the form we all know: user@server.

From forgotten character to king of the internet

That choice catapulted the @ from obscurity to worldwide fame. As the MoMA recognizes, the symbol is today an icon of modern design and communication. With the explosion of email and, later, of social media (where it marks usernames), the @ became an essential character, written billions of times a day.

An old symbol with new life

The story of the @ is that of a character that was about to fall out of use and that, through a practical decision in 1971, became a protagonist of the digital age. From weighing oil in markets to connecting people on the internet, the humble @ proves that sometimes the oldest symbols find their greatest glory in the most unexpected future.