Dot-com backlash/meltdown terms

[Robert Samuel]

Hi Jesse,

I grew up with an Eric Sheidlower - Great Neck, NY.  Related?

/r
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jesse Sheidlower" <jester at PANIX.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 11:53 AM
Subject: Re: Dot-com backlash/meltdown terms


> > All I can say is that the usage goes way back.  The use of periods to
> > separate the portions of a file name (and later of a URL) antedates the
UNIX
> > operating system on which the Internet is laregely based.  IBM's OS/360
> > operating system of 1965 (or maybe a few years earlier; I am citing a
manual
> > copyrighted 1965) used periods in quantity in file names, and I don't
doubt
> > that earlier operating systems also used periods.
>
> OED has released a draft entry for this as one of the high-profile out of
> sequence new words. The earliest we could find specifically using the
> _word_ "dot" to represent the "." esp. as dividing network addresses, etc.
> was 1981 (in RFC780). Certainly the use of the "." for this or similar
> purposes is much older.
>
> I would, needless to say, welcome an earlier example of the word "dot"
> for this symbol.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED