Obsolete term: touch typing

Dave Wilton dave at WILTON.NET
Thu Dec 5 19:46:55 UTC 2002


> 'Keyboarding' is a term for 'typing' like 'sanitation
> engineering' is to
> 'trash collector'--something to make it sound less
> low-<insert whatever
> here> than it is.

I wouldn't make that association with status. Rather, "keyboarding" is
computer jargon. It was coined for those situations where you are using a
keyboard on a device other than a typewriter. It's also much older than I
thought. The OED2 has a 1926 cite, using "keyboarding" to mean typesetting a
manuscript for print. The computer uses date to 1961.

There is also "to key" and "to key in" that are widely used in computing,
also dating to the early '60s. And there is the obsolete "keypunching,"
meaning to operate a keypunch machine used to punch data onto punchcards or
tape.



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