In an age of email, you might see the ‘at symbol’ (or ‘at sign’) every day. But where does this symbol come from? And when should you use this symbol in your writing? In this post, we take a look at the following:
Check out our advice below to make sure your writing is always error free!
In English, the symbol @ had traditionally meant ‘at’ or ‘at a rate of’. For a long time, it has therefore been used to indicate price per unit in commercial contexts, such as on an invoice. For instance:
5 bottles of wine @ £7 per bottle = £35
The origins of using @ to mean ‘at’ are lost in time, but it may come from Venetian merchants or medieval monks. Regardless, this is why most people pronounce @ as ‘at’ in English today! And you may still find it used commercially, such as on a market stall, although this is rarer than it once was.
More commonly, you’ll now see @ used in place of ‘at’ online or in txtspk (e.g. c u @ 5 = see you at five). This is, of course, very informal!
But what else do we use @ for in modern writing? It’s time to talk about email.
The most common place to see the at symbol these days is in an email address, such as info@proofreadmyessay.co.uk.
We can trace this use to the very first email, whose sender chose ‘the at sign to indicate that the [recipient] was “at” some other host rather than being local’. In other words, just like @ can show that a product is being sold ‘at’ a certain price per unit, the @ in an email tells us the recipient is ‘at’ a certain domain. And we still say ‘at’ when we read this out loud.
Since then, we’ve seen this same @ appear on social media. Most famously, Twitter uses the @ symbol at the start of usernames. But you can also use it to contact or tag other users on Facebook and other platforms.
In most modern cases, then, we use ‘@’ in relation to email or social media.
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You might also see the at sign in writing from the sciences or computing. The uses of this symbol in these contexts include:
These uses are very specific to their fields, though, so you won’t come across them often unless you work in the sciences or computing.
One more use of @ is to denote the home team in US sports. For example:
Friday November 1: Washington Periods @ London Full Stops
This would mean Washington were playing at the home venue of the London Full Stops. However, this is only common in American English. In British English, we simply put the home team first.
This all depends on the context! If you are simply messaging a friend, it is fine to use the @ symbol in place of the word ‘at’. The same is true of most informal writing, as long as your meaning is clear.
However, you would only usually use the @ symbol in formal writing if:
But you should never use @ as short for ‘at’ in formal writing. And it is usually better to say ‘at’ in semi-formal writing (e.g. marketing materials or work emails). ‘At’ is only one more character to type, after all!
And if you want to be extra sure your writing is clear, concise and error free, why not try our outstanding proofreading services today?
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