Contents

English

Wikipedia has articles on: Software

Pronunciation

Etymology

soft +‎ -ware, by contrast with hardware (“‘the computer itself’”).

Coined 1953 by Paul Niquette[1]; first used in print by John Tukey 1958.

Noun

Wikipedia has an article on: Software

Wikipedia

Singular software

Plural uncountable

software (uncountable)

  1. (computing) Encoded computer instructions, usually modifiable (unless stored in some form of unalterable memory such as ROM). Compare hardware.
    • 1958, John W. Tukey, "The Teaching of Concrete Mathematics" in The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 65, no. 1 (Jan. 1958), pp 1-9:
      The "software" comprising the carefully planned interpretive routines, compilers, and other aspects of automative programming are at least as important to the modern electronic calculator as its "hardware" of tubes, transistors, wires, tapes and the like.
    • 1995, Paul Niquette, Softword: Provenance for the Word ‘Software’:
      As originally conceived, the word "software" was merely an obvious way to distinguish a program from the computer itself. A program comprised sequences of changeable instructions each having the power to command the behavior of the permanently crafted machinery, the "hardware."

Derived terms

Terms derived from "software"

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to "software"

See also

References

  1. ^ "Introduction: The Software Age" at niquette.com, adapted from Sophisticated: The Magazine

Italian

Etymology

English

Noun

software m. inv.

  1. (computing) software

 

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