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From: root@lsuc.UUCP (The Super User)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: So roff is short for runoff, now what does that mean?
Message-ID: <2089@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Oct-87 01:37:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.2089
Posted: Tue Oct 20 01:37:33 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Oct-87 02:08:07 EDT
References: <1131@nrcvax.UUCP> <3550002@hplsdla.HP.COM> <392@xios.XIOS.UUCP> <1129@ark.cs.vu.nl> <1669@frog.UUCP> <7367@alice.UUCP>
Reply-To: root@lsuc.UUCP (The Super User)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 13
Keywords: nroff/troff
Summary: Answered.

>> To continue, what does [nt]roff stand for ? (I believe 'off' is something
>> like 'output format filter')
>
>Multics had "runoff" (quite a reasonable name).

And, as Dennis Ritchie and others have explained, all the other names derive
from this.  However, nobody has yet pointed out why "runoff" is "quite a
reasonable name" for a text formatter; it always seemed very obscure to me.
(This, of course, depends on whether you think of the thing as a "text
formatter" or a "run-off program"...)

Anyway, the reason is that you use it when you want to "run a document off"
on the printer.  Now you know.