That little "a" with a circle curling around it that is found in email addresses is most commonly referred to as the "at" symbol.

　　小寫(xiě)字母“a”外加個(gè)圓圈，這一符號(hào)常出現(xiàn)在email（電子郵件）地址中，通常是作為“at”（在）的標(biāo)記。

　　Surprisingly though, there is no official, universal name for this sign. There are dozens of strange terms to describe the @ symbol.

　　然而令人感到驚奇的是，這一標(biāo)記居然沒(méi)有官方的，通用的名稱。有幾十個(gè)奇怪的術(shù)語(yǔ)用來(lái)描繪@這一符號(hào)。

　　Before it became the standard symbol for electronic mail, the @ symbol was used to represent the cost or weight of something. For instance, if you purchased 6 apples, you might write it as 6 apples @ $1.10 each.

　　@這一符號(hào)在成為電子郵件的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)符號(hào)之前，曾被用來(lái)表示物品的單價(jià)或質(zhì)量。例如，你買6只蘋(píng)果。就可以寫(xiě)成：六只蘋(píng)果，每只@$1.10，表示每只蘋(píng)果1.10美元。

　　With the introduction of e-mail came the popularity of the @ symbol. The @ symbol or the "at sign" separates a person's online user name from his mail server address. For instance, joe@uselessknowledge.com. Its widespread use on the Internet made it necessary to put this symbol on keyboards in other countries that have never seen or used the symbol before. As a result, there is really no official name for this symbol.

　　隨著電子郵件的使用，@這一符號(hào)越來(lái)越普及了。符號(hào)@或“at”標(biāo)記將上網(wǎng)用戶的姓名與其郵件的服務(wù)器地址分開(kāi)。例如：joe@uselessknowledge.com。 這一符號(hào)在因特網(wǎng)上的廣泛使用使得許多以前從未見(jiàn)過(guò)或使用過(guò)它的國(guó)家必須在它們的電腦鍵盤(pán)上加上這一符號(hào)鍵，結(jié)果造成這一符號(hào)并沒(méi)有真正的官方名稱。

　　The actual origin of the @ symbol remains an enigma.

　　@符號(hào)的確切起源仍然是謎。

　　History tells us that the @ symbol stemmed from the tired hands of the medieval monks. During the Middle Ages before the invention of printing presses, every letter of a word had to be painstakingly transcribed by hand for each copy of a published book. The monks that performed these long, tedious copying duties looked for ways to reduce the number of individual strokes per word for common words. Although the word "at" is quite short to begin with, it was a common enough word in texts and documents that medieval monks thought it would be quicker and easier to shorten the word "at" even more. As a result, the monks looped the "t" around the "a" and created it into a circle-eliminating two strokes of the pen.

　　歷史告訴我們，@這一符號(hào)起源于中世紀(jì)僧侶疲勞的雙手。中世紀(jì)時(shí)印刷機(jī)尚未發(fā)明，要出版一本書(shū)，每一個(gè)單詞的每一個(gè)字母都得用手工辛苦的刻出來(lái)。從事這項(xiàng)長(zhǎng)時(shí)間辛苦謄寫(xiě)刻畫(huà)的僧侶們就開(kāi)始尋找減少每一個(gè)常用字筆畫(huà)數(shù)的方法。雖然“at”這一單詞開(kāi)始寫(xiě)起來(lái)很短，但它在文本和文件中頻繁出現(xiàn)。中世紀(jì)的僧侶們就想到如果能進(jìn)一步簡(jiǎn)化它，就可以寫(xiě)起來(lái)更快更容易。結(jié)果，僧侶們就在“a”四周畫(huà)了一個(gè)圈，從而省卻了字母“t”的兩個(gè)筆劃。