What's the English word for "arroba

The symbol of at @, is a symbol that was originally used during the Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, around the year 800, during the Middle Ages. In Arabic arroba means “the fourth part”, since it was the symbol to refer to the fourth part of a quintal, an ancient measure that was used to measure the weight of various merchandise. The quintal varied in measurements according to the regions of the Iberian Peninsula and consequently the value of the arroba also varied. Their values ​​were 30, 32 or 36 ounces, which currently equates to roughly 10, 11.5, and 12.5 kilograms.

In English arroba is said "at".

During the Middle Ages this symbol was incorporated as part of the work of scribes and copyists, since given the expensiveness of paper or scrolls, and to avoid repetition, they marked citations to another part of the text using the at symbol and a reference to the page and paragraph.

With this literary use it became known in France and England. As its Arabic name was not known in England, it was only called "at symbol", "! Symbol a", that is, the symbol of connection of one element with another. However, its use was not very widespread and was only used by specialists. It is from the scientific advances of the 19th century, that the at takes importance in the English language with the meaning of "at". We can still see this use and it has become quite widespread when, for example, we see the characteristics of a car. They talk about its maximum power or its torque at a certain number of revolutions per minute. The symbol at is placed between both figures:

120hp @ 4500 rpm (120 horse power at 4500 revolutions per minute - 120 horses at 4500 revolutions per minute)

150Nm @ 2500 rpm (150 Newton-meter at 2500 revolutions per minute - 150 Newton meters at 2500 revolutions per minute)

It is also used in scientific language to indicate a relationship between two variables:

Relation temperature (° F) - Volts (Temperature - Voltage relationship):

32 @ 0

50 @ 5

75 @ 20

127 @ 50

189 @ 90

250 @ 120

However, the most widespread use of the at sign, not only in English, but in all languages, is in computing. The first use is as a pointer to email addresses. In this case, the @ indicates the mail domain to which the user belongs:

[email protected] (user: admin in cheapchips.com domain)

[email protected] (User: sussy_walker, in the domain: yahoo.com.au [from Australia])

It is also used before the names of users of services such as twitter, instagram and others, which begin with the @:

@pcsuperexpress (at pcsuperexpress)

@brokenmirror (at brokenmirror)

Colloquially there are those who use it to indicate that something is directed specifically to another person. It can go to the beginning of a note, on a gift card, etc .:

Notes @ Miss Kendall (Notes to Miss Kendall)

This box Roxanne @ Joanne (This box is from Roxanne to Joanne)

Examples of sentences with at in English:

Well friends, remember contact us on twitter in at blondietalker (@blondietalker)

Please, note my e-mail: wowgirl13 at fatalweb.net ([email protected])

At this moment, the engine makes 150 hp at 3000 rpm (150hp @ 3000rpm)

Gift John @ Esther (gift from John in order to Esther)

The spent this week, was:

$ 125 @ food

$ 50 @ clothes

$ 68 @ transport