comment out (1975)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Wiktionary defines the programming term "comment out" as: "To temporarily
disable a section of source code by converting it into a comment." It's been
around since at least the mid-'70s, but it didn't make it into the Jargon
File until Version 2.3.1 (Jan. 1991):

---
http://catb.org/jargon/oldversions/jarg231.txt
<comment out> vt. To surround a section of code with comment
   delimiters in order to prevent it from being compiled.  This may be
   done for a variety of reasons, most commonly when the code is
   redundant or obsolete but you want to leave it in the source to
   make the intent of the active code clearer.
---

Earliest I've found on Google Books:

---
1975 _Proceedings of the Fourth Manitoba Conference on Numerical
Mathematics_ 12 The distribution copy contains all the versions of the
source required for any of the machines they supply libraries for -- code
applying to machines other than the current one is commented out.
http://books.google.com/books?id=hCA5AAAAIAAJ
---

--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org