"software" coinage

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 12 Jun 2001 AAllan at AOL.COM wrote:

> Has anyone investigated the origins of "software"? Probably lots. But I have
> come across two contradictory claims:

John W. Tukey used "software" in print in 1958.  I discovered this usage
through a JSTOR search, wrote it up in the IEEE Annals of the History of
Computing, and it received worldwide publicity after the New York Times
headlined Tukey's obituary "John Tukey, 85, Statistician; Coined the Word
'Software'" and many other news media similarly spotlighted my 1958
citation.

On the other hand, Paul Niquette maintains that he used the word as early
as 1953.  He has not yet supplied any documentation for this assertion,
but I am working with him to see if he can indeed back up his claim.

Fred Shapiro


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