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@

Greek translation: Αμφορά

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:@
Greek translation:Αμφορά
Entered by: Daphne Theodoraki

09:47 Jul 15, 2001
English to Greek translations [Non-PRO]
Bus/Financial
English term or phrase: @
I need to know what this symbol meant, before it was used in e-mail addresses, and before it was named with the silly name “papaki=little duck” by the people who did not know what it actually means.
Yanna Brouzou
Αμφορά
Explanation:
Στον 16ο αιώνα σήμαινε "αμφορά" και χρησιμοποιείτο ως μονάδα μέτρησης. Εξ ου το αγγλικό "at".

The origin of the @ symbol has been discovered recently by Giorgio Stabile, a history professor at the University "La Sapienza" of Rome. Stabile discovered the symbol in letters of 16th century Venetian business men. Of course 500 years ago the @ symbol did not have the same meaning as now: it represented a unit of measure, the amphora.
Stabile is working on a photo encyclopedia for the Tricani Institute, that should contain all important facts and realizations of the 20th century. One of the technological revolutions of the 20th century that should not be missing in this encyclopedia is the development of the internet and electronic mail. Therefore Stabile decided to unravel certain historical aspects of the world wide computer network. "The @ symbol is already in use for quite some time in Anglo-Saxon countries in the meaning of at the price of", says Stabile. The @ symbol has thus been used in a commercial context. This fact was for Stabile an indication to search for its origin in the direction of commercial language. "A symbol does not emergy from nothing", says the history professor.

Following a few indications given by the School for Palaeography in Rome, Stabile consulted a collection of documents of 16th century Italian business men. The documents belong to the International Institute for History of the Economy "Francesco Datini" in Prado. After some browsing in the documents Stabile found that the @ symbol was formerly used to designate an "amphora". In those days this antique unit of measure was used a lot in the wine commerce, especially in Venice. But the origin of the @ symbol even goes back much further than the 16th century Venice. In an Arabic-Italian dictionary from 1492 Stabile found that the Arabic word written as "@" meant simply "amphora", confirming the previous finding.

That the @ symbol finally became part of cyberspace is due to Ray Tomlinson, an American engineer who is one of the founding fathers of the internet, or actually the Arpanet, the predecessor to the present internet. In 1972 Tomlinson invented a system for individual electronic mail, introducing the first "hot" application of the Arpanet. He used the @ symbol to distinguish a sender's or addressee's name from the name of the electronic mail box. According to Stabile, Tomlinson chose this symbol "just because it was on the keyboard".
To conclude, never say again "ape tail" for an "amphora".


Selected response from:

Daphne Theodoraki
Sweden
Local time: 08:44
Grading comment
Glad to know that someone knows. Thank you most kindly.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
naΑμφορά
Daphne Theodoraki


  

Answers


16 mins
Αμφορά


Explanation:
Στον 16ο αιώνα σήμαινε "αμφορά" και χρησιμοποιείτο ως μονάδα μέτρησης. Εξ ου το αγγλικό "at".

The origin of the @ symbol has been discovered recently by Giorgio Stabile, a history professor at the University "La Sapienza" of Rome. Stabile discovered the symbol in letters of 16th century Venetian business men. Of course 500 years ago the @ symbol did not have the same meaning as now: it represented a unit of measure, the amphora.
Stabile is working on a photo encyclopedia for the Tricani Institute, that should contain all important facts and realizations of the 20th century. One of the technological revolutions of the 20th century that should not be missing in this encyclopedia is the development of the internet and electronic mail. Therefore Stabile decided to unravel certain historical aspects of the world wide computer network. "The @ symbol is already in use for quite some time in Anglo-Saxon countries in the meaning of at the price of", says Stabile. The @ symbol has thus been used in a commercial context. This fact was for Stabile an indication to search for its origin in the direction of commercial language. "A symbol does not emergy from nothing", says the history professor.

Following a few indications given by the School for Palaeography in Rome, Stabile consulted a collection of documents of 16th century Italian business men. The documents belong to the International Institute for History of the Economy "Francesco Datini" in Prado. After some browsing in the documents Stabile found that the @ symbol was formerly used to designate an "amphora". In those days this antique unit of measure was used a lot in the wine commerce, especially in Venice. But the origin of the @ symbol even goes back much further than the 16th century Venice. In an Arabic-Italian dictionary from 1492 Stabile found that the Arabic word written as "@" meant simply "amphora", confirming the previous finding.

That the @ symbol finally became part of cyberspace is due to Ray Tomlinson, an American engineer who is one of the founding fathers of the internet, or actually the Arpanet, the predecessor to the present internet. In 1972 Tomlinson invented a system for individual electronic mail, introducing the first "hot" application of the Arpanet. He used the @ symbol to distinguish a sender's or addressee's name from the name of the electronic mail box. According to Stabile, Tomlinson chose this symbol "just because it was on the keyboard".
To conclude, never say again "ape tail" for an "amphora".





    Reference: http://www.vki.ac.be/~sermeus/nfaq/amphora.html
Daphne Theodoraki
Sweden
Local time: 08:44
Native speaker of: Greek
PRO pts in pair: 249
Grading comment
Glad to know that someone knows. Thank you most kindly.
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