snabelen

Snabelen is a noun used in Danish and Norwegian to denote the trunk or snout of an animal, most commonly the elephant’s trunk. The form snabelen is the definite singular in these languages, created by adding the definite suffix -en to the base snabel. The base word snabel itself derives from a Germanic root referring to a projecting, tubular appendage.

In ordinary usage, snabelen describes the physical trunk of animals and is also employed metaphorically to refer to any long, tubular projection, such as a pipe, hose, or other elongated feature. It appears in zoological, anatomical, and descriptive writing as a concrete or figurative term for a trunk-like shape.

In Nordic digital culture, the symbol @ is often called snabel-a, a nickname reflecting its resemblance to a trunk above the letter A. While some speakers may refer to the at sign using the definite form snabelen in casual speech, this is less standard; more common variants include snabel-a or simply the at sign.

Overall, snabelen functions as a basic descriptive term for a trunk or trunk-like form, while its specialized use signaling the at symbol arises from contemporary naming practices in Danish and Norwegian.