COMMERCIAL AT
\kəmˈɜːʃə͡l at], \kəmˈɜːʃəl at], \k_ə_m_ˈɜː_ʃ_əl a_t]\
Sort: Oldest first
-
"@". ASCII code 64. Common names: at sign, at,strudel. Rare: each, vortex, whorl, INTERCAL: whirlpool,cyclone, snail, ape, cat, rose, cabbage, amphora. ITU-T:commercial at.The @ sign is used in an electronic mail address to separatethe local part from the hostname. This dates back to July1972 when Ray Tomlinson was designing the first[?] e-mailprogram.It is ironic that @ has become a trendy mark of Internetawareness since it is a very old symbol, derived from thelatin preposition "ad" (at).Giorgio Stabile, a professor of history in Rome, has tracedthe symbol back to the Italian Renaissance in a Romanmercantile document signed by Francesco Lapi on 1536-05-04.In Dutch it is called "apestaartje" (little ape-tail), inGerman "affenschwanz" (ape tail). The French name is"arobase". In Spain and Portugal it denotes a weight of about25 pounds, the weight and the symbol are called "arroba".Italians call it "chiocciola" (snail).See @-party.
By Denis Howe
Word of the day
Platidiam
- An inorganic water-soluble platinum complex. After undergoing hydrolysis, it reacts DNA produce both intra interstrand crosslinks. These crosslinks appear to impair replication and transcription of DNA. The cytotoxicity cisplatin correlates with cellular arrest in G2 phase cell cycle.