That @ symbol

[Lyons, Jennifer M]

Interesting!  I only remember being taught that it was a merged way to write
"ad" (like the ampersand is for "et").  We learned circa as either a c. or a
~.  I grew up in Pittsburgh, and never saw anyone use @ to mean
"approximately"; here in Ohio, I have run across a few instances of that
usage.  (If it counts for anything, I was born in 1979.)

Jen

-----Original Message-----
From: James Smith [mailto:jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com]

> Also, to Jennifer Lyons - I'm with you on the
> "approximately" or "about" peeve!
> Cheers,
> Devon Coles
>
Recollection of seemingly inconsequencial events in my
remote past are rarely clear, but I believe I learned
the use of @ to mean "approximately" before I learned
it also could be used for "at".  As a youth, I deduced
from its usage that @ was an "a" inside a "c", an
abbreviation for "circa", which I understood to mean
"about" or "approximately".



=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
SLC, UT                        |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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