Enclosed A

Not to be confused with At sign (@).
"Circle-A" redirects here. For A overscribed on a circle, see the anarchy symbol.
The circle-A, commonly used as a symbol for anarchism.

Enclosed A or circled Latin A (, ) is a typographical symbol. It is an "A" within a circle, and it occurs alongside many other enclosed alphanumerics.

Uses

United States military

An A within a circle was adopted as a symbol by the United States Third Army (now the United States Army Central) in the early 20th century.

Anarchism

The symbol is a recognizable icon used by many people who identify or sympathize with anarchism. Despite the militaristic use noted above, by the dawn of the 21st century the enclosed A has largely supplanted the traditional Black Flag as the most-used anarchist symbol. Peter Marshall an author, philosopher and BBC television producer wrote that it represented the idea (as advanced by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and other anarchist theorists) that "Anarchy is Order"; early incarnations of the anarchist icon were expressed with an unenclosed A (Anarchy) superimposed over the O (Order) before evolving into the more formal form used modernly.[1]

Encodings

The symbols are encoded in Unicode at

See also

References

  1. Marshall, Peter. Demanding the Impossible. Fontana, London. 1993. p. 558

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Circle-A symbols.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amero.


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