The Ancient Origins of the Ubiquitous @ Symbol

Simple Things – Surprising Histories examined the ancient origins of the now-ubiquitous @ symbol, noting its various iterations over the centuries.

We explain where the @ symbol comes from and how its use evolved step by step, using real historical records and verified technological milestones.

The symbol first appeared in a 1536 letter by the Florentine vintner Francesco Lapi and later became the industry standard for identifying wine. The symbol was largely forgotten in the era of typewriters, but once again proved useful when ARPANET engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first email in 1971, bringing it back from the brink of extinction.

He needed a way to separate the name of the person receiving the message from the name of the computer hosting their account.  He needed a symbol that wasn’t used in anyone’s actual name so it wouldn’t confuse the system. He looked down at his teletype keyboard and his eyes landed on the lonely forgotten at symbol. It was perfect. Not only was it rarely used, but it literally meant at. The user was at the host.

Ray Tomlinson