Re: Corpora: the At sign

From: Daniel John (john@ldv35.uni-trier.de)
Date: Fri Oct 12 2001 - 11:08:47 MET DST

  • Next message: Gabriel Pereira Lopes: "Re: Corpora: the At sign"

    Hello,

    I wondered *how* the German name "Klammeraffe" came into being.

    Here is my hypothesis:

    1) "Klammer" (noun) means "parenthesis, bracket". On German typewriter
    keybords no "@" was found, so it was common to type "(a)", in
    German: "Klammer-a".

    2) "klammern" (verb) means "to cling" and "Klammeraffe" is a "clinging
    monkey" with a long tail.

    3) "Klammer" (noun) means also "staple" and a stapler is called
    "Klammeraffe" as well.

    4) In my opinion "Klammeraffe" was derived from "Klammer-a" mainly by
    paronomasia but helped by a) the fact that "Klammeraffe" (as stapler) was
    already a commonly used word in office context and b) the iconic relation
    between the sign and the form of the monkey's tail.

    comments welcome!
    best regards,
    Daniel



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