One of the symbols that the Internet has most banalized and whose origin we do not question... what is the origin of “@”? I remembered and went to see.
“@” appears in several 14th century documents as short of “ amphore “, a ceramic pot of normal size that is normally used as a measure for trade in olive oil and wine gave rise to “ at the price of “, that is, a currency exchange unit.
The old symbol was used for hundreds of years in calculating and typing machines. Recently, its use in computers turned it into “at” or, in Portuguese, arroba (any similarity to a unit of measurement?:)).
Tomlison, through a Model 33, felt that it would be necessary to use a symbol that did not appear in anyone's name avoid confusion. The “@/at” was a logical choice, either because it was not used in names or because it represented the word “at”, indicating that a given user would be “@/at” a specific computer.
Today... forget about him and forget about the e-mails!