Who invented the word 'hacker'?

After two months trying to find out who used it for the first time today I have found it by chance: some model train builders at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

According to the explication in their history, they were to first to use the word hacker in 1950 to describe the people who ingeniously modified the original design of a an apparatus in an "intelligent" way so that it could be used of different objectives.

The term hacker is used nowadays to describe different qualities, although the most accepted definition is that of the Jargon File Resources by Eric Steven Raymond. The latter also wrote some articles on How To Become A Hacker that are worth reading.

Ricardo Gallir (http://m3d.uib.es/~gallir)
Professor of the Maths and Computer Department of the UIB

Published in Bulma, Linux users association of the Balearics (28/02/2001)

Date of publication: 03/03/2001

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