The @ sign around the world - it's a little monkey. And a pig's tail...

The @ sign seems a straightforward beast. We call it the 'at sign', which is what that symbol in the middle of email addresses is commonly known as here in the UK, in the US and most other English-speaking countries. It even carries that literal translation in other languages, such as Cantonese, Japanese ('atto makku') and Romanian ('la' - a direct translation of 'at').

But the the French government has now put the cat among the pigeons - its come up with a new word for the humble character - 'arrobe'. This is intended to replace the anglo 'at' or 'arobase' (from Spanish) or even 'arabesque', as some French say, conjuring images of a ballet pose. Why? It's all part of the country's obsession with keeping the language free of Anglicisms and Americanisms.

This is possibly ridiculous. People have a habit of using language the way they want and 'arrobe' may just end up being used by a minority of bureaucrats and nationalists.

However, this story prompted one silicon.com reader to ask about the 'at sign' around the world. What's it known as elsewhere? That sent us on an expedition around the web...

In many countries, it has monkey connotations. It is called a 'monkey's tail' in German ('Affenschwanz'), Dutch ('apestaart' or 'apestaartje') and Afrikaans ('aapstert') and has other simian variations in Polish ('malpa' - meaning 'monkey'), or again German ('Klammeraffe' - 'hanging monkey') and Dutch ('slingeraap' - 'hanging monkey').

A few languages refer to a unit of weight - the Catalan 'arrova', the Portuguese 'arroba' - harking back to the days of '10 apples at such-and-such a price' - and showing where the new, 'official' French term comes from.

But things get stranger than monkeys and weights. Much stranger. The next most common moniker seems to relate to pigs. We have references in Danish ('grisehale' - meaning 'pig's tail'), Norwegian (likewise 'grisehale' in addition to their 'kro/llalfa' - 'curly alpha') and Polish again ('ucho s'wini' - 'pig's ear').

But there are some stranger ones. Take the Czech 'zavinac', meaning 'rollmop' or 'pickled herring', or the Greek 'papaki', meaning 'little duck', not to mention the Turkish 'kulak', for a straightforward 'ear'.

There are plenty of other animal references - 'sobachka' or 'little dog' in Russian, 'snabel-a' or 'a with an elelphant's trunk' in Swedish, or 'kotek' or 'little cat' from those Poles again, and even 'kukac' or 'worm/maggot' in Hungarian.

But perhaps the best and most honest interpretation goes to what the @ sign is called in Thai. Next time you're giving out your address just throw in an 'ai tua yiukyiu' - 'the wiggling worm-like character'.

Now you know.

This article would not have been possible without the immense resource that is Webopedia. See: http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/HistoryofAtSign.asp for more on this subject.

The related news:
French up in arms as @ sign sparks fury
http://www.silicon.com/a56790