That irritating little @

[paulthewall]

Is there a name for the sign which everyone uses in their email address, the @ ?
There must be one; the noun for the & is an ampersand, so what of the @ ?

[lajohn]

Knobbynutbrain

[ChuckFickens]

at called either asperand or just the "at sign"

[Nik315]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%40

[paulthewall]

thanks for responding; more helpful than one i saw...and confirmed by another who referred me to wikipedia, as you may have seen. given that every day in our life is a "school day", that is my new word for today!

[paulthewall]

wikipedia always has the answers! i cannot imagine whiy i did not think of looking there...many thanks again; see my other response....

[tara20]

I like the Austrian name "Klammeraffe",( spider monkey) because it looks like an ape with a long tail wound round it!

[delboy3]

L'escargot (snail) in French

[dundurn]

From that fount of knowledge - the BBC

The Spanish have long had a word for it - arroba, which in the 16th Century indicated a weight or measure equivalent to 11.3kg (25 pounds) or 22.7 litres (six gallons). Modern Italian Internet users refer to the symbol as la chiocciola - the snail, used frequently around the world.

The Germans call it klammeraffe (spider monkey).

The Dutch, apestaartje (monkey's tail).

Danes refer to it as grisehale (pig's tail) or snabel (with an elephant's trunk).

The official Norwegian name is kr�llalfa. Some people say alfakr�ll. Kr�ll means curl, alf is alpha hence Curlalpha.

Finnish people call it kissanhanta (cat's tail), which sometimes goes one step further to become miukumauku - the meow sign!

Hungarians see it as the worm or maggot, kukac.

The Thai word translates as 'the wiggling worm-like character'.

Czechs call it zavinac, which is a rollmop herring.

The Hebrew term is strudel, the famous Viennese apple pastry.

The word Pita, a type of bread, is often used in Israel.

Swedes use kanelbulle (cinnamon bun) and snabel-a (a with a trunk).