What does the @ mean?

[Rubby]

I'm sure this has been posted before and I apologize for that, but I cant seem to find the thread.
I just want to know what it means when @ is placed before a variable instead of the standard $?

[Fumigator]

Here you go:

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.errorcontrol.php

[marek_mar]

It's never placed instead of the $ before a variable, as in PHP all variables start with a $.
@ suppresses errors that an expression can raise.

4 / 0; // Warning: Division by zero in file.php on line 2
@(4/0); // No error shown.

[Rubby]

Oh, well that makes so much more sense. Thanks guys.
I guess I'm just used to seeing @ used to define associative arrays and it's really early so it didn't even register that it was being placed before function calls.