Wat is de achtergrond van @ (en andere digitale gebruikssymbolen)?
Waarom zien de symbolen die we dagelijks op onze computers en online tegenkomen en gebruiken (denk aan het @-symbool) eruit zoals ze eruit zien? Van onderstaande infographic werd ik veel wijzer! Over het @-symbool bijvoorbeeld:
Ah @, the only symbol on the list to earn a spot in the MoMa’s architecture and design collection. How has this fetishized symbol become so potent over the years? It probably has something to do with the net-ruling rune’s deep and mysterious origins. It has been known by many names: the snail (France and Italy), the little mouse (China), the monkey’s tail (Germany). In 1971, a Bolt, Beranek & Newman programmer Raymond Tomlinson decided to insert the symbol between computer network addresses to separate the user from the terminal. Prior to Tomlinson’s use. the @ also graced the keyboard of the American Underwood in 1885 as an accounting shorthand symbol meaning “at the rate of.” Go back even further and things start to get hazy. Some suggest that @ has its origins in the sixth century. when monks adopted it as better way of writing the word ad-Latin for “at” or “toward”-that was not so
easily confused with A.D., the designation for Anno Domini, or the the years after the death of Christ.
bron: Laughing Squid
