The Strange Origins Of 10 Common Computing Terms

Languages evolve over time. New words are added to our collective lexicon — some of which are just corruptions of existing words –- and old words sometimes receive new definitions. Often, these words are adopted by the younger generation for general use (e.g., rizz, cap, and skibidi), but sometimes new terms are reserved for specific industries and products. Case in point: computers.

Computers, as we know them, have existed for less than a century, but they have progressed by leaps and bounds, probably more than any other invention in history, and language has needed to keep pace. For instance, when one of the first computer viruses to infect personal computers reared its ugly head, users had to come up with the term "computer virus" in order to succinctly describe it. And the dictionary of terms used to describe computer functions and conditions has only ballooned since then. Much computing jargon has been adopted from seemingly random words and phrases, and while the origins and reasons for some are self-explanatory, others are just plain wild. Who would ever guess that the term "bug" for machine issues dates back to medieval times, or that the word for unwanted email messages was invented by someone who loved British humor? Read on to learn the crazy origins of several computing terms most people take for granted.

Let us start with the most obvious and common computing term ever: computers. After all, you can't discuss the inner workings and problems of PCs and laptops or even major brands without using the term. It turns out that it predates all the modern inventions and concepts that computers run on, including electricity.

The first use of the word computer on record dates back to 1613, specifically in the book "The Yong Mans Gleanings", which was written by the English poet Richard Braithwaite. The following passage is found in the book:

"What art thou (O Man) and from whence hadst thou thy beginning? What matter art thou made of, that thou promisest to thy self length of daies: or to thy posterity continuance. I haue read the truest computer of Times, and the best arithmetician that euer breathed...".

Obviously, this computer doesn't refer to desktops. In this instance, it was essentially calling someone a computer, meaning someone who excelled in math and critical thinking. But that's exactly what early computers were: Devices that were good with math. Admittedly, the concept of computers predates the book — the Antikythera Mechanism is believed to be a 2,000-year-old analog computer – but the people of the time probably had a very different name for the device.

Computers run on codes that, in their most basic form, are nothing more than ones and zeros. It's binary. On or off. It works or it doesn't. At least, that's what popular media wants you to think. In reality, computers, their programs, and the operating systems that power their hardware run on so many individual codes that something will inevitably go wrong.

When a computer or program doesn't work as intended, most people refer to the issue as a bug. A bug can cause just about any sort of problem, from making computers take a while to shut down to disconnecting USB ports randomly. Most people believe the term was coined in 1947 when Harvard University engineers found a literal bug – a moth — inside their Mark II computer. The only reason they knew it was there was that the bug was causing problems. Others believe Thomas Edison invented this particular word-meaning association during his work on the quadruplex telegraph system. But the terminology is even older.

While the word "bug" has been used to describe annoying insects since time immemorial, the term's association with technological faults dates back to medieval times. In Scotland, the word was "boggil" or "bogle;" the Germans used "bögge," and the British used "bugge." Granted, back then, people believed little gremlins snuck into their machines and broke them, but that was the jargon in common parlance. Different spellings, similar pronunciations. Regardless of the source, bugs are always annoying.

If you need information on virtually any subject quickly, you generally turn to Wikipedia (and similar Wikipedia-style apps). You can't use Wikipedia for an academic paper — you need to cite the original sources — but you can use it for general information. In fact, many collections of info on the internet are called wikis, but not because they spawned from Wikipedia. Quite the opposite.

The semi-complete encyclopedia of the internet, Wikipedia, was created by entrepreneur Jimmy Wales and internet developer Lawrence Sanger. The program was their second attempt to create a browser-based encyclopedia — their first attempt was called Nupedia. The latter part of Wikipedia came from encyclopedia, but where did Sanger get the prefix "wiki"? Most likely from the software used to create the site, which was used to power the then-established WikiWikiWeb. But that doesn't fully answer the question of where wiki came from.

WikiWikiWeb was created by Ward Cunningham to make developing websites and exchanging ideas easier. He wanted to edit and produce the website and its pages as quickly as possible, and to help get that point across, he picked a catchy word that meant "fast" or "quick." In 2003, Cunningham told Patrick Taylor, an etymologist for the American Heritage Dictionary, that he got the idea from visiting Hawaii. According to Cunningham, after he landed in Honolulu, he was told to board a "Wiki Wiki bus" to take him between terminals. In the native Hawaiian language, "wiki wiki" means quick. This was the first Hawaiian word Cunningham learned, and it stuck with him enough to name his world-changing software after it.

A common misconception about software is that in the early days of computing, programs shipped complete and never changed. At least until manufacturers sold an updated version that supplanted the old one. In truth, coders have been providing minor, incremental updates ever since computers read data on paper (more on that later).

Whenever a company releases a small, minor update for a program, they often call it a patch. Sometimes these patches fix issues that negatively impact security and performance. Other times, they get rid of bugs caused by prior updates. Why "patch?" Because many fix security flaws that can be exploited in cyberattacks, literally patching holes in firewalls and antivirus programs? Well, yes and no.

Long ago, the first examples of digital information were stored on punch cards, literal cards of stiff paper with holes punched out. Computers couldn't carry out any functions unless engineers inserted these cards into slots, and different combinations of slotted and whole areas gave different instructions. If a specific card was providing the wrong instructions, users punched out the correct holes and covered the incorrect ones with tape or cardboard. In other words, early computer patches literally patched the holes that were causing problems. While computers no longer use punch cards, at the end of the day, software patches are still plugging up holes in one form or another.

Python is widely considered a reliable and versatile programming language. You can use the code to create video games, develop websites, and produce Raspberry Pi devices for the bedroom. But why would anyone name a coding language after the largest snake in the world? They didn't.

According to the official Python FAQ, when Guido van Rossum started implementing Python, he still hadn't come up with a name for it. But as luck would have it, he had been reading through the published scripts of the legendary BBC comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Since he wanted to give his coding language a name that was "short, unique, and slightly mysterious," he went with "Python" in honor of the iconic British troupe. That's it.

Because van Rossum intentionally chose to reference "Monty Python" with his coding language name, the official FAQ warns that if you look online, you must be careful with your searches. The way search algorithms work, your requests might return one too many results about the original Monty Python show or its movies. Of course, you can read one of the countless books on using Python instead. On the bright side, at least you don't need to watch "Monty Python's Flying Circus" to use the coding language. But you should watch anyway.

Google has cornered the market on search engines. Unless you are trying out something different because you're sick and tired of its Gemini-powered search summaries, odds are you use Google. However, once upon a time, the internet was full of competitors, some of which had names just as weird as Google.

Yahoo! was previously a powerhouse of the internet. The company behind Yahoo! tried to branch out and provide different services, including Yahoo! News and Yahoo! Mail. Today, the tech company is a shadow of its former self, holding fewer worldwide market shares than Google and Bing. Still, back in the day, Yahoo was everywhere, and it even had catchy commercials. Since each ad ended with someone screaming the word, one might think that the search engine's developers picked that name because they wanted everyone to yodel with glee whenever it helped them find what they were looking for. In truth, the name was taken from a different and more obscure kind of yahoo.

According to official Yahoo! documents, the name is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchal Officious Oracle" (i.e., yet another web directory/search engine). However, if you ask the company's founders, Dave Filo and Jerry Yang, they would say he name was selected because it meant "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." Filo and Yang had a sense of humor, so they thought the term described them perfectly and went with it. In other words, Yahoo! was made by yahoos to make people say it.

Computer cursors are essential to modern computing. They streamline the process of accessing programs and features, but they do more than that. Certain kinds of software have unique uses for cursors — point-and-click adventure games require players to click on objects to interact with them. Technically speaking, any on-screen indicator that draws your eye is a cursor, be it the arrow used to click on desktop icons or the blinking horizontal line on the Windows Command Prompt.

The term cursor is an old Latin word that translates to "runner" or "errand boy." If you delivered messages or packages, you were a cursor. Starting in the 1590s, the word took on a new meaning and was used to describe part of a slide rule that slides backward and forward. Slide rules were early, hand-operated mechanical calculators that aided users in numerous mathematical operations. Douglas Engelbart of the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) is commonly associated with envisioning one of the first computer cursors, as he wanted to help translate planimeter data. This was similar enough to how cursors worked on slide rules to adapt the term. Oh, and Engelbart helped invent the first computer mouse (which he initially called a bug), which also explains why cursors are commonly associated with that peripheral.

Spam is a plague upon the modern era. Spam clogs up calendar apps, spam emails eat up precious server space with ads for useless services, and spamming attacks in video games are a cheap way to win matches. So it's fitting that the term came from a skit that was intentionally made to be annoying.

The most obvious connection one can draw is that spam was named after the food Spam. This processed, canned conglomeration of pork and ham is made to be eaten straight out of the can, and it isn't exactly a health food. Many people find Spam unappetizing, but they consume it anyway in times of desperation. Sounds like the perfect way to describe unwanted emails since nobody wants to see them. But if you're desperate to save money on electricity, that unsolicited message about installing solar panels might just be the answer to your prayers. Case closed, right? Well...

The true origins of associating the word spam with mass unwanted emails and repeatedly using the same annoying move in video games can be traced to, once again, "Monty Python's Flying Circus." According to a set of guidelines released by Northwestern University regarding spam, the term references a Monty Python skit about a restaurant where the food Spam progressively takes over more and more of the menu's options (and later the credits). Oh, and unsolicited Vikings start chanting (i.e., orally spamming) the word. It's hard to find a more apt representation of internet spam.

The terms that describe actions related to different devices and electronics usually make sense. For instance, to turn on a light references the original act of turning a dial on a gas or oil lamp (i.e., early indoor lighting). This started the chemical reaction that produced an illuminating flame. But turning on computers is often described as booting. What do boots have to do with computers? Well, it's more apt than you realize.

The terms boot and booting originate not from a word but from an expression: "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps." This phrase is often misattributed to the story "The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen," where the titular Baron Munchausen pulls himself and his horse out of a swamp by the straps on the back of his boots (it was actually his pigtail). A more likely candidate is a physics schoolbook from the late 1800s. This academic document allegedly included the question: "Why can not a man lift himself by pulling up on his bootstraps?"

Regardless of the origin, "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" originally described an impossible task, as the action would defy the laws of physics. This expression eventually became associated with rags-to-riches stories, but what does it have to do with computers? Because while you can't pull yourself up from your own bootstraps, someone else can lift you with them. A computer cannot run without loading software, but it cannot load software without running. Boot hardware and software get the ball rolling, but they are part of the computer's operating system and thus shouldn't load without the computer running. Yet they do. Computers defy this seeming paradox, hence why engineers chose the word "bootstrapping" and eventually shortened it to "booting."

Not all computer terms have to do with their various processes. Some describe the people who work on and develop computers. One would think they would try to pick a word that makes them sound as cool as possible, but that would imply they don't have a sense of humor.

In popular culture (and sometimes real life), people who work with computers are called nerds. This word can also apply to anyone who makes video games, plays "Dungeons & Dragons," and creates programs. Generally, anything that is intellectual, academic, or technical is considered nerdy, and therefore, anyone who participates must be a nerd. However, the word is more commonly used as slang to describe someone uncool. How did the word come to mean that in modern parlance? Surprisingly, it always meant that.

The first recorded use of the word "nerd" is cited in Dr. Seuss' "If I Ran the Zoo." However, the word didn't have much meaning then, but it caught on, as a year later, Newsweek published an article on the latest slang words, one of which was "nerd." According to the article, the term had replaced the use of "square" (another word for uncool people) in Detroit. The working theory is that since the Nerd in "If I Ran the Zoo" looked uncool, the first people to use it outside of the book associated "nerd" with the opposite of coolness, so the meaning stuck. Computer nerds are just the latest in a long line of unwilling recipients of the term's spotlight.