You know the at symbol? This thing: @? There’s a name for it, just not in English. We just call it the at symbol. But other countries – stand back!
This Short Stuff episode takes you on a globe-trotting journey to discover why the @ symbol has wildly different names around the world, from the adorable "spider monkey" in German to "strudel" in Israel, and how it all traces back to ancient measurements and Mediterranean trade. The hosts uncover the fascinating history of how @ evolved from a shorthand symbol used by Italian merchants to describe wine amphoras in the 1500s, eventually making its way onto typewriter keyboards and then becoming essential to computing when Ray Tomlinson chose it for the very first email address in 1971. It's the kind of perfectly bite-sized, dinner-party-worthy trivia that'll make you appreciate a tiny symbol you've probably never thought twice about.
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