The at sign (@), also called the at symbol, is formally an abbreviation of the accounting and commercial invoice term "at the rate of" (e.g., 7 widgets @ $2 = $14). In recent years its meaning has changed to also mean "at" in the sense of "located at", especially in email addresses. Increasingly, @ is also used as a prefix to user names (e.g., @username) on social websites such as Bebo and Twitter to denote a link, attribution or indirect reference.
Underwood Typewriter Company included the symbol on the keyboard in 1885. Raymond Tomlinson, an American programmer, used it in 1971 as the natural division within the first email message sent.[1]
In English, it is usually pronounced at. The ANSI, ITU-T, and Unicode character encoding standards refer to the character as commercial at. Some historical names are mentioned in the "History" section below.
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