We all remember
taking typing class. Okay those of us
over forty remember taking a typing class.
The rest of you remember taking “keyboarding” class. Anyway, we remember the finger positions for
the letters and (if you were really good) the numbers as well. We also had to know where the shift, return,
spacebar, period, comma and quotation mark keys were. However, most of the other keys were largely
ignored except when we had those excruciating bonus assignments that used the
upper case of the numbers row and practice the !, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ),
etc. Inevitably, in order to type these
we had to break the cardinal rule and look at the keyboard. However, since the introduction of the
internet (yes, young ones, there was a time before the internet) there are a
few symbols that have seen a surge of life.
These previously ignored symbols are now part of our everyday
keyboarding experience.
4 - / (Slash)
The slash is often referred to (inaccurately) as the
backslash. It is also sometimes referred
to as the stroke or the forward slash (just to confuse those who call it a
backslash). It has a long history. It dates back to ancient Rome. It is most commonly used as substitute for
the word “or” such as his/hers, I/we, etc.
It can also be used to separate the day/month/year. Other than these uses, it was seldom part of
everyday usage (unless you were on a bowling team that picked up a lot of
spares). However, with the onset of the
internet, the slash is now literally used everywhere. Every website starts out with http://. In addition, the slash is also used as a
component separator. It has truly made a
long journey from ancient Rome.
3 - : (Colon)
The colon has been part of our written language since
ancient Greece. In the past, most people
avoided using colons and semi-colons because, despite the best efforts of our
high school English teachers, it was just too confusing as to which one should
be used when. That all changed in 1982
when Scott Fahlman came up with the idea of the emoticon and used the colon,
the dash, and the closing parenthesis to make a smiley face :-) and the opening
parenthesis to make a sad face :-( Once
this caught on, people came up with all kinds of variations, but almost all of
them included the colon (or semi-colon for a wink).
2 - # (Pound Sign)
While the pound sign was used as a numbering system (as seen
in this list) it was otherwise generally ignored. It garnered a bit of recognition when the
touchtone phones included the pound sign and the mostly-ignored-counterpart-on-the-other-side-of-the-zero
asterisk (*). It continued to gain
popularity with the implementation of automated answering systems (press the pound
sign when complete). However, it
stagnated for quite a while after that.
Then along came Twitter and the pound sign was reinvented as the
Hashtag. Now the pound sign/hashtag has
become a part of our daily lives :) Did you notice how I snuck in both a slash
and a colon in that last sentence?
1 - @ (At Sign)
The @ (or at sign) has some curious origins. Curious in that no one really knows where it
started. There are several theories as
to its origins. Some believe it was a
mercantile shorthand symbol of
"each at"—the symbol resembling a small "a" inside a small
"e"—to distinguish it from the different "at" (symbolized
by the mere letter "a") or "per.
Another theory is that it derives from the Norman French "à"
meaning "at" in the "each" sense, i.e. "2 widgets à £5.50 = £11.00" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/@
The Oxford dictionary says, “This sign originated
as a scribe's quick way of writing the Latin word ad, especially in lists of prices of commodities. It's usually
just known as 'the at sign' or 'the at symbol': although it has acquired various nicknames in other languages none of these has
so far caught on in English.” http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-sign
Whatever its
origin, it has been used in many cultures and languages over the centuries,
including Spanish, Portugese, Arabic, Latin and English. In all these, its use was mostly confined to
commerce and trade. About the only time
the rest of us used the at sign was when we accidentally hit the shift key and
the number two key at the same time.
Ironically, despite the usage of the at sign in multiple cultures and
languages, it has never been given an official name in English. Hence we still refer to it as the “at sign”.
It’s likely that
the poor @ would have languished forever in the storage basements with accounting
ledgers if not for the intervention of the internet, and more specifically, e-mail.
BBN Technologies' Ray
Tomlinson is credited with introducing this usage in 1971. This idea of the symbol representing located
at in the form
user@host is also seen in other tools and protocols.
According to Tomlinson, “I am
frequently asked why I chose the “at” sign, but the “at” sign just makes sense.
The purpose of the “at” sign (in English) was to indicate a unit price (for
example, 10 items @ $1.95). I used the at sign to indicate that the user was
"at" some other host rather than being local.” http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html
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