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From: phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Word Origins
Summary: See Sammet & others for references to early documents in computing.
Message-ID: <172@garth.UUCP>
Date: 11 Apr 90 22:40:26 GMT
References: <7509@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Reply-To: phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps)
Organization: Intergraph APD, in semiarid Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 41

In article <7509@sbcs.sunysb.edu>,
sanjiva@sbcs.sunysb.edu (Sanjiva Prasad) writes:
>
>Some time ago Richard O'Keefe had asked some questions about 
>the first usages of certain commonly used terms. [...] it is worthwhile 
>to compile a "computer science jargon vocabulary/lexicon",

There is a technical report from ANSI (1430 Broadway, NYC, NY 10018):

    X3/TR77: _Dictionary for Information Processing_.

>complete with references to when and where a term was first used, 
>in what context, and who coined it. 
>[Was] such a compilation [...] undertaken before [?]

My recollection is that X3/TR77 does not provide etymology.
As a starting point, you may wish to check 

    Jean E. Sammet: _Programming Languages: History And Fundamentals_,
    Prentice-Hall, 1969 (Library of Congress num. 68-28110).

for references to the age of "stone knives and bearskins" for
programming languages in the U.S.A.  Terms differed between different
native-English-speaking nations (e.g.: "coding" vs. "programming").

The book that was derived from the History of Programming Languages
Conference (HOPL) in August 1978--proceedings were _SIGPLan Notices_
vol. 13 num. 8, same year & month, may not be as helpful as Sammet.

Not as many years ago, someone published a multivolume 
_Annals of the History of Computing_.  Perhaps it was ACM or IFIPS.
I don't have a more exact reference.

-- 
[The foregoing may or may not represent the position, if any, of my employer, ]
[ who is identified solely to allow the reader to account for personal biases.]
                                              
Clay Phipps 
Intergraph APD: 2400#4 Geng Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303; 415/852-2327
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