Editing At sign (section)

{{Short description|Typographical symbol (@)}}
{{Technical reasons|:@" and strings beginning with "@#|:@|List of emoticons|''@#!*''|Pulley (band)#Discography|''@#%&*! Smilers''|Fucking Smilers{{!}}''Fucking Smilers''}}
{{Infobox symbol
|mark           = @
|unicode        = {{unichar|0040|COMMERCIAL AT|html=}}
|see also       = {{unichar|FF20|FULLWIDTH COMMERCIAL AT|html=}}<br />{{unichar|FE6B|SMALL COMMERCIAL AT|html=}}
|different from = 
}}

The '''at sign''' ('''{{char|@}}''') is an [[accounting]] and [[invoice]] abbreviation meaning "at a rate of" (e.g. 7 [[Widget (economics)|widgets]] @ [[£]]2 per widget = £14),<ref>See, for example, Browns Index to Photocomposition Typography (p. 37), Greenwood Publishing, 1983, {{ISBN|0946824002}}</ref> now seen more widely in [[email]] addresses and [[social media]] platform [[User (computing)|handles]]. It is normally read aloud as "at" and is also commonly called the '''at symbol''', '''commercial at''', or '''address sign'''. Most languages have their own name for the symbol.<!-- The list is below -->

Although not included on the [[keyboard layout]] of the earliest commercially successful [[typewriter]]s, it was on at least one 1889 model<ref name="shady">[http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/08/the-symbol-part-2-of-2/ "The @-symbol, part 2 of 2"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141225121941/http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/08/the-symbol-part-2-of-2/ |date=2014-12-25 }}, ''[http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/ Shady Characters ⌂ The secret life of punctuation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221071159/http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/ |date=2014-12-21 }}''</ref> and the very successful [[Underwood Typewriter Company|Underwood]] models from the "Underwood No. 5" in 1900 onward. It started to be used in email addresses in the 1970s, and is now routinely included on most types of [[computer keyboard]]s.