where did the term 'hacker' come from?

Question

we hear it a lot, but who invented it?

Answer 1

Hacker

Many computer fanatics abhor the use the term hacker to mean someone who uses a computer for malicious purposes. They claim that hacker denotes simply an enthusiast and that term should not be used to denote someone who breaks into computer networks to perform acts of theft and vandalism. The original use of the term, however, is distinctly in the sense of someone using a computer maliciously.

The earliest known use of the term is from the 20 November 1963 issue of The Tech, the student paper of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

Many telephone services have been curtailed because of so-called hackers, according to Prof. Carlton Tucker, administrator of the Institute phone system. [...] The hackers have accomplished such things as tying up all the tie-lines between Harvard and MIT, or making long-distance calls by charging them to a local radar installation. One method involved connecting the PDP-1 computer to the phone system to search the lines until a dial tone, indicating an outside line, was found. [...] Because of the "hacking," the majority of the MIT phones are "trapped."

The computer term is probably from the metaphor of continually hacking or chopping away at something until it finally gives way.

Answer 2

I think the term "hacker" came about when we all first getting access to the Internet.

Answer 3

hack thru data, to the problem. As with many early computer terms, sounded fairly silly.

Who invented it? think you would find some real trouble trying to dig that one up, because its beena round since the beginning.

Answer 4

MIT is correct, but it was the model railroaders club see wiki on it in my sources