[Ads-l] Antedating "Easter egg"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Early 1570s." Heh heh.

JL

On Sat, Apr 4, 2026 at 9:28 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:

> In recognition of tomorrow's holiday  . . .
>
> OED (2) 1986
> The OED suggests that the term comes from computing.  Online sources claim
> that it comes from the world of video games, and state that the 1981 cite
> below is the origin of the term (although actual Easter eggs are documented
> back into the early 1970s).
>
> 1981 Electronic Games Winter 14/2
>
> "From now on," he told EG in an exclusive interview, "we're going to plant
> little 'Easter eggs' like that in the games."
>
>
> https://archive.org/details/ElectronicGames/Electronic%20Games%20Issue%201%20%28Winter%201981%29/page/n15/mode/1up
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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