hack

[Dave Wilton]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Fred Shapiro
> Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 3:36 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: hack
>
>
> On Wed, 15 Jun 2005, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>
> > hack -- a prank, particularly technically-oriented, or involved detailed
> > planning (or at least appealing to MIT students)
> >  This sense isn't in the OED or the HDAS.  As near as I can tell, it
> > started as MIT slang.  I tend to think that the computing sense of
> > "hack" evolved from it, but can't prove it.
>
> There is no doubt in my mind that the computing senses of "hack" and
> "hacker" derive from the MIT slang above.  I have previously posted a 1963
> citation for "hacker" from the MIT student newspaper.


Here's an MIT cite of the verb from 1955:

"Mr. Eccles requests that anyone working or hacking on the electrical system
turn the power off to avoid fuse blowing." 5 April 1955, TMRC meeting
minutes, found in Onorato, J. (2002). Tech Model Railroad Club of M.I.T.:
the first fifty years. Cambridge, Mass., Tech Model Railroad Club.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net
  http://www.wilton.net