[Ads-l] Antedating "Easter egg"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fun topic, Bill.
In April 1981 "SoftSide: Your BASIC Software Magazine" asked their
readers to find an easter egg that was hidden on the cover of the
magazine:

Date: April 1981
Periodical: SoftSide: Your BASIC Software Magazine
Volume 3, Number 7
Article: About This Issue
Author: S.S. Munchkins (pseudonym?)
Quote Page 19, Column 1
Publisher: SoftSide Publications, Milford, New Hamphire

https://archive.org/details/softside-magazine-31/page/n7/mode/2up?q=+%22Easter+egg%22

[Begin excerpt]
Egg, egg, who's got the egg? Some weird guy with long ears showed up
the other day and stashed an Easter egg on our cover. Can you find it?
If so, write to the munchkins (that's us) and tell us where it is.
We'll duly take note and mention you next time.
[End excerpt]

Here is a link to the cover of the April 1981 issue. The "easter egg"
appears below the question mark after the word "Board". The "easter
egg" is egg-shaped black outline.

https://archive.org/details/softside-magazine-31/

Here is the pertinent OED definition:

[Begin OED excerpt]
Originally Computing. An unexpected or undocumented message or feature
hidden in a piece of software, intended as a joke or bonus. Also: a
feature of this kind in film, music, and other forms of information or
entertainment.
[End OED excerpt]

The egg-shape is not quote a "message or feature"; hence, it probably
does not fit the OED definition. Yet, it may have influenced the
emergence of the modern notion of an "easter egg".

Here is an follow-up from the July 1981 issue of the magazine.

Date: July 1981
Periodical: SoftSide: Your BASIC Software Magazine
Volume 4, Number 10
Article: About This Issue
Author: S.S. Munchkins (pseudonym?)
Quote Page 15, Column 1
Publisher: SoftSide Publications, Milford, New Hamphire

https://archive.org/details/softside-magazine-34/page/n15/mode/1up?q=Easter

[Begin excerpt]
Hi there, this is your old Uncle Fred, announcing for the very last
time all the late replies to our Easter Egg hunt. First I want to take
this here opportunity to say that there were actually a couple of you
folks out there who found the egg where it wasn't, which is to say
that you were looking too hard. It was under the question mark (?) on
the line about the chairman of the board.
[End excerpt]

Wikipedia has a lengthy article on this topic. The article describes
an Easter egg in the1973 video game Moonlander, but this feature was
not called an "Easter egg in 1973. The article claims that the term
"Easter egg" emerged in 1980, but I was unable to find a solid 1980
citation in the article or notes. It may have been called an "Easter
egg" in 1981 or later it seems.

Easter egg (media)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media)

[Begin excerpt from Wikipedia]
The use of the term "Easter egg" to describe secret features in video
games originates from the 1980 video game Adventure for the Atari 2600
game console, programmed by the employee Warren Robinett.
[End excerpt from Wikipedia]

Garson

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