Where did the "at" symbol come from?

 We have some late-breaking news on the "at" symbol
 or "commercial a" symbol, whichever you choose to
 call it.  Time was that linguists thought it was a
 contraction of the Latin word "ad" (to, toward, or
 at), curling the stem of the letter "d" back over
 the "a".  But some busy Italian scholar recently
 unearthed an early use of the symbol, from 500 years
 ago in commercial records, where the "at sign" stood
 for "amphora," a unit of volume for grain, wine, oil,
 and the like.  (An amphora is a type of clay jar used
 since ancient times to ship edibles.)
 The embellished "a" for amphora eventually came to
 stand for "at the price of" in Western Europe and the
 U.S.  It muscled its way into more modern Western
 life via the typewriter keyboard.  The rest of the
 world had to wait for the advent of the internet and
 e-mail to learn about it.  Depending on where you
 live around the world, you might refer to the little
 spot as a snail, bun, pig's/monkey's/dog's tail,
 leech, worm, or rolled herring.

and/or . . . internet rosebud, doohickey, Cattle-Act ranch brand, surfer's
tube or an apostate e.

kate<winkies>

... Before E-mail, we sat around the saloon waiting for the stagecoach.

from keyboard

regards
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