@ Symbol as Insult?

[typod]

I've done a comprehensive google search about the @ sign being used as an insult or perhaps any alternative meaning.

Yesterday I sent a message to an eBay member about an item (As I usually do). I kindly asked them if the item had stickers etc or was from a smoke-free home. I thanked them in advance etc...

The seller responded about 20 mins later and the body of the message just says @.

Am I missing something???

I responded by saying "Hey, I'm quite interested in your item, is this an insult an oversight?"

NO RESPONSE

Seriously, just kind of confused and intrigued about the implications of this little symbol.

[JJ]

you too, pal.

[LeAnn]

hahaha
how strange... i hadnt heard of this one....

[Silo5]

I think in the US, it simply means "at". Although, if you use your imagination, it could mean "A-hole". Since the letter "a" is in the middle of a "hole"

I also found this info:

In Italian, the symbol is informally called the “snail” (chiocciola); its French name is "arobase" or sometimes "arrobe" or "arobe" (from the arroba, an old Spanish and Portuguese unit of weight); in Dutch it is called the "(little) monkey tail" (apenstaartje); in Hebrew, it is informally called Strudel ("שטרודל"); in Japanese it is the "at mark", and similarly, in German it is called the "at symbol" or "spider monkey" (Klammeraffe); and in Chinese, it is known as the "little mouse".[1] In Spanish and Portuguese it is the symbol for arroba, an archaic unit of weight, and in some Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries it is still pronounced this way, even when related to an e-mail address. Another name for the symbol is asperand.

In Russian, the symbol is informally called the "dog" (sobaka (собака)) or "doggie" (sobachka (собачка)) and being used in e-mails and nicknames replacing letter A, i.e. Павел (Pavel) >> П@вел, Самара (Samara) >> Сам@ра. The Finnish sometimes call the symbol "miukumauku" (meow meow) owing to the symbol's resemblance to a cat and its tail. In Polish, it is called "małpa," meaning "monkey;" for its resemblance to a monkey with its arm extended over its head. In Swedish and Danish the sign is known as the "snabel a" (literally trunk a), owning to the resemblance between the sign and the trunk of an elephant. In Norwegian the term most commonly used is "krøllalfa" (literally: curled alpha). Alpha is the Greek denomination for the first letter of the alphabet, and applies to both majuscules and minuscules. In the case of the Norwegian "krøllalfa", one is picturing a minuscule (lower case) alpha, with a long curl at the end.In Greek language the sign is known as "papaki" meaning small duck. In Slovenian, the most common word for it is "afna", colloquially meaning "monkey", much like in Polish.