European @ Sign

At first glance, this map created by europapont.blog.hu looks quite exotic. It actually tells us how Europeans call the @ sign in their language and why. In Dutch, for instance, it is called apestaart, which means “monkey’s tail”. Because it looks like a monkey with his tail curled over him. In Greek, it’s called a little duck and in Russian a dog. In Italian the symbol is known as a chiocciola (snail). In French, it is officially called the arobase. Its origin is the same as that of the Spanish word, which could be derived from the Arabic ar-roub – a pre-metric unit of weight.

European 'at sign'

Name of ‘@’ symbol by countries:

  • Albania: at and kiocola after the Italian chiocciola (snail)
  • Austria: mostly at, sometimes Klammeraffe (spider monkey)
  • Belarus: сьлімак / slimak (snail)
  • Belgium: “at” and in Wallonia arobas (old weight unit); in Flanders apenstaartje (monkey’s tail)
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina: лудо А / ludo-a („crazy a”)
  • Bulgaria: кльомба / klyomba – (“a badly written letter”), or маймунско а / maymunsko a, meaning “monkey A”
  • Croatia: mostly „at”, or manki after the English word „monkey”
  • Cyprus: παπάκι / papaki (duckling)
  • Czech Republic: zavináč (rollmops)
  • Denmark: snabel-a (elephant trunk-a)
  • Estonia: „at”
  • Finland: „at”, ät-merkki, (at-sign) or kissanhäntä (“little cat’s tail”) or miukumauku (“meow-meow”)
  • France: arobase (old-fashion weight unit stemming from an arabic word)
  • Germany: mostly „at”, sometimes Affenschwanz („monkey tail”) or Klammeraffe (spider monkey)
  • Greece: παπάκι / papaki (duckling)
  • Hungary: kukac (maggot or worm)
  • Ireland: „at” Italy: „at”; chiocciola (snail)
  • Iceland: at merkið, hjá-merkið (at-sign)
  • Latvia: „at” or „et”
  • Lithuania: „at”, or according to the Lithuanian pronounciation „eta”
  • Luxembourg: mostly „at”; formerly Afeschwanz (“monkey tail”), or sometimes arobas
  • Macedonia: мајмунче / majmunce (“little monkey”)
  • Malta: „at”
  • Moldova: „at” or a rond („round a”), or coadă de maimuţă (“monkey tail”)
  • Montenegro: ludo-a („crazy a”)
  • Netherlands: apenstaartje (“monkey tail”)
  • Norway: alfakrøll or krøllalfa (“curly alpha”)
  • Poland: małpa / małpka (“little monkey”)
  • Portugal: arroba (old weight unit)
  • Romania: „at”; a rond („round a”) or coadă de maimuţă („mokey tail”)
  • Russia: собака / sobaka (dog)
  • Serbia: лудо А / ludo-a („crazy a”); мајмунче / majmunce (“little monkey”)
  • Slovakia: zavináč (rollmops)
  • Slovenia: afna (“little monkey”)
  • Spain: arroba (old weight unit) Sweden: snabel-a, (“[elephant’s] trunk A”)
  • Switzerland: „at” or Affenschwanz (“monkey tail”)
  • Turkey: „at”, or majmun (monkey)
  • Ukraine: „at” / ет; or равлик / ravlik (snail) or песик / pesik (“little dog”)
  • United Kingdom: „at”

If you liked this map, you may also like our article on European Swear Words, Placeholders, Lol and Fillers.