[1] From: Gustav Bayerle <bayerle@indiana.edu> ( )
Subject: Re: 10.26 the polyglot @
[2] From: Florian T Brody <brody@newmedia.co.at> (29)
Subject: Re: 10.19 @ = Affenschwanz, Klammeraffe, a commercial,
arroba, Strudel, apestaartje, slingeraap, arobace --
FULL STOP!
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 07:48:23 -0500 (EST)
From: Gustav Bayerle <bayerle@indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: 10.26 the polyglot @
In Hungarian @ is called _kukac_ "worm."
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 20:57:38 +0100
From: Florian T Brody <brody@newmedia.co.at>
Subject: Re: 10.19 @ = Affenschwanz, Klammeraffe, a commercial, arroba, Strudel, apestaartje, slingeraap, arobace -- FULL STOP!
as much as the & sign which as everybody knows is early latin shorthand for
"et" is known in German, the @-sign is unknown and was introduced but the
7-bit IBM char set which had nothing but A..Z,0..9, and a few US style
special chars such as #@ |
As Rainer Henrich points out @ is called "Klammeraffe" - was called
"Klammeraffe" until approx a year ago - now everybody (everybody who reads
at least a tabloid) knows that it is the "Internet sign" - nobody who wants
to be cool can do without and logos, mugs, T-Shirts everything has an "@"
instead of an "a" wherever possible.
even peope who claim that they use email regularily don't know how to draw
the @ - observe people who they desperately make an "a" and then try to go
around clockwise - change their mind midstream and go the other way around
....
Another sign: the "#" which I know as "Doppelkreuz" in German (double
cross) is sometimes referred as "Kanalgitter" (sewer cover/grid - the one
on street corners to let the rain water run down). And in one glossary it
was explained as Octothorp - unfortunately I never found a second reference
to this. I really like the word and use it whenever there is a half way
reasonable chance to do so - which is not very often :)
anybody who knows more about this?
Florian Brody
MultimediaArt, Salzburg, Austria
Art Center College of Design, Pasadenas CA
and currently Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria