What does “@” mean in Windows batch scripts

Question

I saw @ is used in such contexts:

@echo off

@echo start eclipse.exe

What does @ mean here?

Answer 1

It inherits the meaning from DOS. @:

In DOS version 3.3 and later, hides the echo of a batch command. Any output generated by the command is echoed.

Without it, you could turn off command echoing using the echo off command, but that command would be echoed first.