First Published Use of "Internet"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 22 Jul 2000, susan wrote:

> Can anyone tell me when and in what context and the word Internet was
> first used? Thank you, Susan Gilbert mssmith at boone.net

My previous message noted that Merriam-Webster's files for _Internet_ go
back to 1986.  Subsequently I searched Nexis.  The earliest occurrence in
the modern sense is the following:

1982 _Computerworld_ 4 Jan. (Nexis)  The Transmission Control Protocol and
Internet Protocol will come with popular computer systems in 1982,
informed sources predict.

It should be noted, however, that the word _Internet_ was used in a
variety of other senses prior to 1982.


Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2