List of Computer Term Etymologies - A

A

• ABEND — originally from an IBM System/360 error message, short for "abnormal end". Jokingly reinterpreted as German Abend ("evening"), because "it is what system operators do to the machine late on Friday when they want to call it a day."

• Ada — named after Ada Lovelace, who is considered by many to be the first programmer.

• Apache — originally chosen from respect for the Native American Indian tribe of Apache. It was suggested that the name was appropriate, as Apache began as a series of patches to code written for NCSA's HTTPd daemon. The result was "a patchy" server.

• AWK — composed of the initials of its authors Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan.