That @ symbol

[Natalie Maynor]

I'm happy that this discussion of @ arose and that a couple of people
have mentioned an association with "approximately."  I'd been thinking
for years that I had just dreamed that up at some point in childhood.
Until sometime in middle age -- probably when bitnet came into my life
and I became maynor at msstate, I had thought that @ meant "at about."  I
don't know where my thought on the subject came from originally, but
when I started catching on that it meant "at," I concluded that I had
somehow imagined the "about" part.
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)