The Unexpected History Behind 10 Everyday Internet Terms

The online world has its own vocabulary of words and expressions, some of which are scarcely ever used in any other context. Phishing, for instance, has only ever had one meaning: it emerged alongside the World Wide Web itself in the mid-1990s to describe computer-assisted fraud conducted by “fishing” for victims online. (Its initial ph–, incidentally, is borrowed from an even earlier kind of form of tech fraud, known as telephone “phreaking,” that dates back to the 1970s.) 

Some words from our online vocabularies, though, have been with us a lot longer than their modern meanings might suggest. And throughout their long histories, their meanings have been shaped and reshaped as the contexts in which we use them have changed. 10 examples of precisely that are explored here. 

1. Bandwidth
2. Broadband
3. Firewall
4. Hardware
5. Meme
6. Offline and Online
7. Spam
8. Stream
9. Surfing
10. Upload and Download

Bandwidth

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of the word bandwidth dates from 1885. Back then, it understandably had nothing to do with electronics or computing, and was instead a meteorological term used in the context of a technique for measuring the “bandwidth” of the rainband—that is, the portion of the yellow part of the sun’s spectrum that was once presumed to be a means of forecasting rain.

It wasn’t until the early 1900s that bandwidth came to be used in the context of electronic waves and telecommunication, before the more modern online version emerged with the first internet technologies in the 1970s. The figurative use of bandwidth to mean as much as you can mentally handle, meanwhile, dates from the late ‘80s.

Broadband

The first broadband was the name of a technique for drying corn way back in the early 1600s. In this original context, the “band” in broadband was a length of string or twine used to tie a batch of corn into a sheaf.

If the corn were wet with rain or early-morning dew, though, binding it could cause it to mold or rot. So the damp corn would first be laid out flat across the band and left unbound—or “in a broadband,” as it was known—to dry out before being tied later. Our more contemporary version of broadband, meanwhile, emerged in the early 1900s, originally in the context of radio frequencies, before shifting to online tech in the 1990s. 

Firewall

An online firewall might keep your computer safe from viruses and other unauthorized access, but the original firewall back in the 1500s was far more literal: the Oxford English Dictionary has unearthed an early use of the word to mean an actual barrier-like wall of flames dating from 1578.

From there, though, the word shifted from a potential danger to a potential safety feature, as in the 17th century, a firewall became a thick partition wall inside a building, constructed and positioned to prevent the spread of a fire should one break out. This meaning remains in use today in the context of building safety regulations—and it was this meaning too that inspired the later online use of a figurative firewall in the 1990s. 

Hardware

Ware has meant merchandise or manmade goods since the days of Old English, and it’s from there that the word hardware originally emerged in the 15th century to refer to any metal items—and in particular tools, utensils, nails, and even arrowheads—that were naturally hard and durable. (It was this meaning too that inspired the name of the first hardware store in the late 1700s.)

The first use of the term in relation to the heavy and bulky main hardware of a computer system dates from the 1940s, and it was this that led to the less tangible aspects of a computer system being contrastingly named software two decades later. 

Meme

Biologist Professor Richard Dawkins coined the word meme in his 1976 bestseller The Selfish Gene, defining it as “a unit of cultural transmission.” (He had originally considered the longer word mimeme, before discounting it in favor of a monosyllabic word to contrast it with a gene, a unit of hereditary transmission.)

From there, though, the term quickly came to be used of anything—an image, a video clip, a joke, a quote, or even just a stock phrase or piece of text—that is likewise widely shared and passed on online. In this context, the word has been traced back as far as 1998; the earliest meme to be so called, in fact, was the “dancing baby” meme from the 90s TV series Ally McBeal. 

Offline and Online

In both these words’ earliest meanings, the “line” was originally a railroad line: according to the Oxford English Dictionary, anywhere that was situated along a US railway could be described as online way back in 1918, while offline emerged a year later to describe anywhere located off a main rail route or, more loosely, anything that was not transported or relocated by rail.

By the 1940s, both words had come to be similarly used in the context of air travel, before the “line” a person or location could be either “on” or “off” (that is, connected to or disconnected from) became a computer network in the 1950s. 

Spam

Originally a trademark, tinned Spam first became a household name in the ‘30s and ‘40s when fresh meat was either rationed or in short supply, and so cheaper, less perishable alternatives were doled out to army servicemen and household cooks alike, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Although a popular theory claims that the name Spam stands for “shoulder pork and ham,” the Oxford English Dictionary’s etymological detective work suggests it was originally coined as a combination of “spiced ham” and was first sold by the Hormel company under that name back in 1937. 

From there, this story makes two distinct jumps forward several decades in time. First, in 1970, an episode of the hugely popular BBC comedy series Monty Python featured a memorably madcap sketch set in an English greasy-spoon café, in which the word “spam” was repeated over and over again.

Then, 23 years after that, in 1993, an early Usenet message board was accidentally inundated with 200 largely identical posts, prompting one of the members to jokingly label the unwanted messages “spam,” following Monty Python’s repetitive use of the word two decades earlier. The name stuck, and we’ve been dealing with unwanted spam in our inboxes and websites ever since. 

Stream

As the name of a watercourse and geographical feature, the word stream is an especially old one, dating back far into the ancient Germanic roots of our language. Understandably, it is the ceaseless movement the water in a stream that led to the same word coming to be used more figuratively of anything that likewise forms an uninterrupted line or movement—including a beam of light (1368), an unbroken flow of words (1585), a decorative line of gold (1597), a succession of gunfire (1600), and a procession of people (1639).

The modern use of the word to refer to the unbroken playback of an online video or music is ultimately just the latest in a long line of similarly stream-like words. 

Surfing

Surf was a noun long before it became a verb, and has been used since the 1600s (as it still is today) to refer to the foamy crash of the sea as it encounters the shore. Oddly for such a familiar and seemingly straightforward word, its origins are something of a mystery, with various rival theories connecting it to the likes of sough and surge, or else to some long-lost word from one of the languages of India.

Whatever its origins, riding on the surf along a shoreline first became known as surfing in the 1890s, and it’s from there that the word came to be used for any number of similarly smooth or effortless movements (often with the implication of moving from point to point). According to the OED, for instance, people have been “surfing” the streets atop cars and trains since 1985, and we’ve been “channel surfing” by switching between television stations since 1988. “Surfing the internet,” finally, emerged in the early ‘90s. 

Upload and Download

When both of these words were first used, the “loads” being moved up and down were originally cargo. Upload, first used in reference to a heavy load of hay being loaded onto a horse and cart, dates back to 1870 at least, while download was an early 20th-century military term referring to the removal of equipment and personnel from army aircraft. These words’ use in relation to computer data, finally, emerged in the 1970s. 

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