@ : A Tiny Symbol, 2,500 Years of Hidden History

November 5, 2025 – In the digital age, @ is the “home” of your email address. But did you know? This little symbol has a 2,500-year history, born from medieval monks’ handwriting, then revived in 1971 with a single keystroke.

Ancient Roots: Latin “Ad”The Latin word ad (“toward,” “to”) was often written by monks by merging the letters ‘a’ and ‘d’ into a single loop.

The result? Almost identical to the modern @.

16th-century Venetian trade documents already used it to mean “amphora” (a unit of weight for olive oil): 1 @ = 1 amphora.

19th Century: Typewriters & CommerceWhen the Underwood typewriter launched in 1885, @ became the 27th official key.

American merchants used @ for “at the rate of” (price per unit): “12 apples @ $0.05 = $0.60”

1971: Email Is Born, @ Is ChosenRay Tomlinson, an ARPANET engineer (the internet’s precursor), needed a separator between username and host machine.

From 30+ symbols on the Teletype Model 33 keyboard, he picked @ because:

1. Never used in filenames  

2. Means “at” – perfect for “user at host”

The world’s first email: tomlinson@bbn-tenexa

From Monastery to Billions of ScreensToday, @ appears 290 billion times daily in global emails (Statista 2025).

In Spain & Portugal, it’s called arroba (an old weight unit).

In France: escargot (snail).

In Korea: dalkgomm (baby chick)

.  A symbol born from monks’ ink, survived the typewriter era, and went global via one email—proof that big history often hides in the smallest mark. When you type name@domain.com (mailto:name@domain.com), you’re writing 2,500 years of history in one character.