Contents
English
Wikipedia has articles on: SoftwarePronunciation
Etymology
soft + -ware, by contrast with hardware (“‘the computer itself’”).
Coined 1953 by Paul Niquette[1]; first used in print by John Tukey 1958.
Noun
Wikipedia has an article on: Software|
Singular software |
Plural uncountable |
software (uncountable)
- (computing) Encoded computer instructions, usually modifiable (unless stored in some form of unalterable memory such as ROM). Compare hardware.
- 1958, John W. Tukey, "The Teaching of Concrete Mathematics" in The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 65, no. 1 (Jan. 1958), pp 1-9:
- The "software" comprising the carefully planned interpretive routines, compilers, and other aspects of automative programming are at least as important to the modern electronic calculator as its "hardware" of tubes, transistors, wires, tapes and the like.
- 1995, Paul Niquette, Softword: Provenance for the Word ‘Software’:
- As originally conceived, the word "software" was merely an obvious way to distinguish a program from the computer itself. A program comprised sequences of changeable instructions each having the power to command the behavior of the permanently crafted machinery, the "hardware."
- 1958, John W. Tukey, "The Teaching of Concrete Mathematics" in The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 65, no. 1 (Jan. 1958), pp 1-9:
Derived terms
Terms derived from "software"
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Related terms
Terms etymologically related to "software"See also
References
- Notes:
- ^ "Introduction: The Software Age" at niquette.com, adapted from Sophisticated: The Magazine
Italian
Etymology
Noun
software m. inv.
- (computing) software
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