Big-endian - Etymology

Etymology

In 1726, Jonathan Swift described in satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels tensions in Lilliput and Blefuscu: whereas royal edict in Lilliput requires cracking open one's soft-boiled egg at the small end, inhabitants of the rival kingdom of Blefuscu crack theirs at the big end (giving them the moniker Big-endians). The terms little-endian and endianness have a similar intent.

Danny Cohen's "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" published in 1980 ends with: "Swift's point is that the difference between breaking the egg at the little-end and breaking it at the big-end is trivial. Therefore, he suggests, that everyone does it in his own preferred way. We agree that the difference between sending eggs with the little- or the big-end first is trivial, but we insist that everyone must do it in the same way, to avoid anarchy. Since the difference is trivial we may choose either way, but a decision must be made."

This trivial difference was the reason for a hundred-years war between the fictional kingdoms. It is widely assumed that Swift was either alluding to the historic War of the Roses or — more likely — parodying through oversimplification the religious discord in England and Scotland brought about by the conflicts between the Roman Catholics (Big Endians) on the one side and the Anglicans and Presbyterians (Little Endians) on the other.