Etymology of IT terms

    The IT industry originated in America, and we all know that terms from this sphere came to Russian from English. This is quite natural, as well as the fact that the English words were adjusted to the rules of the Russian language: to code became “codify”, the bug report began to lean (bug reports, bug reports, etc.), and the verb to google, new even for English, we have turned into “google”, “google”, “google” and “google” (with a change in number, face and time). But how cookies relate to cookies, and why Macintosh is not connected with a raincoat, few people know. Are you familiar with the etymology of IT terms?

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    Bit and byte


    These terms are used by all, even far from the IT-sphere, users, because the "weight" of the file to download is a crucial parameter. The term bit was created by Claude Elvun Shannon in 1948. In his article “Mathematical Theory of Communication,” he proposed using the word bit, created from two words, binary and digit (binary number), to denote the smallest unit of information. The word byte appeared later, in June 1956. His creator’s name is Werner Buchholz, and he coined the word “byte” to designate the unit of measure for information during the creation of the IBM 7030.

    Bug


    Many have heard the story of a moth that burned between two contacts in a Harvard Mark II computer relay, which caused a software error. Then Grace Hopper, who worked with the machine, found the poor guy and removed it, returning the "Harvard" performance, and the find attached to a technical journal, providing with the inscription: "The first real case of detection of a bug." But in fact, the word bug identified technical problems long before the birth of computers: the same Thomas Edison, who created the phonograph and worked with the telegraph, telephone and other equipment, called the bug word "minor errors and difficulties" during work.

    Cookie


    Perhaps the sweetest term. And he really connected with cookies. It all started with Unix programmers, who described a small set of data passed from one program to another by the phrase magic cookie. In 1994, programmer Lou Mantulli, when creating the Netscape browser, created cookies (or cookies), borrowing the name from colleagues. In both cases, the prediction cookies were a source of inspiration.

    Mac


    Everyone knows Macintosh OS, but not everyone knows why it is so called, and what’s more, an apple, because the word “mac” in Russian means “waterproof rubberized raincoat”. It's very simple: the name comes from the word McIntosh, which means a variety of red apples.

    Python and spam


    Think nothing in common? No, both of these words came from Monty Python's popular British show Flying Circus. Actually, the programming language is named after the show itself. But the spam appeared thanks to the sketch of the same name. The couple comes to the restaurant and starts to pick the dishes meticulously, but all the menu items contain SPAM - canned meat. The waitress lists the dishes available: first, these are the usual names, and then practically “spam with spam, filled with spam”. Sketch just fell on the days of Usenet, where there were annoying advertisers who interfered with communication. And by analogy with the already well-known and beloved joke, the phrase “spamming up the dialogue” appeared, that is, throwing so much unnecessary advertising into it that it becomes difficult to communicate. So,

    Java


    Of all the programming languages, Java has one of the most interesting names in terms of etymology. Initially, this language wore a laconic name D, but James Gosling, his creator, decided to rename it Oak (the oak) - the D letter had a lot of associations with the school grade. In America, grades are put in letters, where A is an analogue of our “five”, and D, you know, not the most impressive result. But James did not take into account that programmers at Sun Microsystems Inc. already used a language called Oak. James proposed other options, and the method of busting the language gave the name "Java". Why? Because in English this word meant coffee, especially the one that grew up on the islands of Java, and the programmers, they say, drink a lot of coffee. Why then is the language called "Java" and not "Java"? Because the name of this language came from English, where it is pronounced exactly as "Java". By the way, many people think that this is an acronym, but one of its creators has denied it. Java is not an acronym, and each letter of it does not mean anything, however (and here it is unexpected), if you so want to believe that the word has a secret, the creators offer the Just Just Vague Acronym option (“another strange acronym”).

    Oracle


    No less interesting is the story of Orakla, a relational database management system. Initially, its creators worked for the CIA, and the project was codenamed Oracle, Oracle. Probably, the CIA agents believed that Oracle will provide answers to all questions. The project was completed, but the creators decided to finalize the database and show it to the world.

    Ubuntu


    The name of this operating system is borrowed from African languages ​​and means “humanity”. Philosophy Ubuntu pays special attention to loyalty to others. It is interesting that there are no more operating systems that would have such a specific name. The same Windows and Linux do not carry any philosophical burden.

    Worm


    Science fiction is the engine of progress. Anything that science fiction writers compose for their works, sooner or later becomes a reality. So it was with the "worm". The name for this malware was borrowed from the novel John Brunner "Riders of the Shock Wave", written in 1975 already. There are some "tapeworms", special programs that spread over the network and delete data. Naturally, this name did not pass unnoticed: the programmers immediately adopted it

    Bot


    This word is an example of apocopy, that is, truncation. Initially, the term sounded like internet robot or web / WWW robot. But over time, all the excess has fallen off, and a simple and understandable “bot” has remained in use.

    Log


    Despite the fact that in English the word “log” is a homonym of this word, the “log” familiar to IT people has nothing to do with logs. This term has existed since the 17th century, when the word log meant the ship’s log.

    File


    Why is the file actually called a file? It turns out that this word is not one hundred years old. It got into English from French around the 1520s and immediately acquired the meaning of "thread or cable on which documents are attached." One hundred years later, the word slightly changed its meaning and began to signify neatly collected paper documents, among which you can quickly find the right one. And only in 1954 the word file came to the world of information technology.

    Nerd


    And finally - why are the nerds called nerds? This word came into use in the student's environment, but no one really knows where it came from. There is a version that this is a modified word nert, which was in use in the 1940s and meant "stupid / crazy person." Nert, in turn, could come from nut, which still means "strange, crazy." For certain, one thing is known: the first time this word appeared in the book of the popular writer Theodore Suze Geisel “If I Managed the Zoo”, and, probably, from there it went to the masses.

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