- electronic mail
- 1977, from electronic + mail. Cf. e-mail.
- electronics
- 1910, from electronic; cf. also -ics. The science of how electrons behave in vacuums, gas, semi-conductors, etc.
- electronic
- 1902, “pertaining to electrons;” 1930 as “pertaining to electronics;” see electron, electronics. Related: Electronically.
- calculator
- late 14c., "mathematician, one who calculates," from L. calculator, from calculatus, pp. of calculare "to reckon, compute," from calculus (see calculus). Of mechanical adding machine contraptions, from 1784. Of electronic ones, from 1946.
"Electronic calculator uses 18,000 tubes to solve complex problems" ["Scientific American" headline, June 1946]
- bleep
- "electronic noise," 1953, imitative. Verb meaning "edit a sound over a word deemed unfit for broadcast" is from 1968.
- ping (n.)
- 1835, imitative of the sound of a bullet striking something sharply. Meaning "short, high-pitched electronic pulse" is attested from 1943. Verb use, in computer sense, is from at least 1981.
- ENIAC
- acronym from "electronic numeral integrator and computer," device built 1946 at University of Pennsylvania by John W. Mauchly Jr., J. Presper Eckert Jr., and J.G. Brainerd. It cost $400,000, used 18,000 radio tubes, and was housed in a 30-foot-by-50-foot room.
- amplifier
- 1540s; see amplify. Electronic sense is from 1914; shortened form amp is from 1967.
- binaural
- "pertaining to both ears," 1861, from L. bini "twofold, two apiece" (used especially of matched things) + aural. In ref. to electronic recordings, from 1933.
- Mellotron
- type of electronic musical instrument, introduced 1963, from mello(w) + (elec)tron(ic).
- spacy
- 1885, "large, roomy, spacious," from space (n.). Meaning "felt as characteristic of outer space" (esp. with ref. to electronic music) is attested from 1971, probably infl. by spaced-out (1965, Amer.Eng. slang), an allusion to the behavior of people using hallucinogenic drugs (see space (v.)).
- e-mail
- 1982, short for electronic mail (1977; see mail (1)); this led to the contemptuous application of snail mail (1983) to the old system.
- glitch
- 1962, Amer.Eng., possibly from Yiddish glitsh "a slip," from glitshn "to slip," from Ger. glitschen, and related gleiten "to glide." Perhaps directly from Ger.; it began as technical jargon in the argot of electronic hardware engineers, popularized and given a broader meaning by U.S. space program.
- amplify
- mid-15c., "to enlarge or expand," from M.Fr. amplifier, from L. amplificare "to enlarge," from amplificus "splendid," from amplus "large" + the root of facere "make, do" (see factitious). Meaning "augment in volume or amount" is from 1570s. Restriction of use to sound seems to have emerged in the electronic age, c.1915, in reference to radio technology.
- bionic
- 1901, as a term in the study of fossils, from Gk. bios "life" (see bio-) + -onic, from electronic, etc. Meaning "pertaining to bionics" is recorded from 1963. Popular sense of "superhumanly gifted or durable" is from 1976, from popular U.S. television program "The Bionic Man" and its spin-offs.
- transistor
- "small electronic device," 1948, from transfer + resistor, so called because it transfers an electrical current across a resistor. Said to have been coined by U.S. electrical engineer John Robinson Pierce (1910-2002) of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J., where the device was invented in 1947. It that took over many functions of the vacuum tube. Transistor radio is first recorded 1958.
- synthesis
- 1610s, from L. synthesis "collection, set, composition (of a medication)," from Gk. synthesis "composition," from syntithenai "put together, combine," from syn- "together" + tithenai "put, place," from PIE base *dhe- "to put, to do" (see factitious). Synthesizer "electronic musical instrument" is attested from 1909.
- e-commerce
- by 1998, from electronic (cf. e-mail) + commerce.
- computer
- 1640s, "one who calculates," from compute. Meaning "calculating machine" (of any type) is from 1897; in modern use, "programmable digital electronic computer" (1945; theoretical from 1937, as Turing machine). ENIAC (1946) usually is considered the first. Computer literacy is recorded from 1970; an attempt to establish computerate (adj., on model of literate) in this sense in the early 1980s didn't catch on. Computerese "the jargon of programmers" is from 1960, as are computerize and computerization.
- globe
- 1550s, "sphere," from L. globus "round mass, sphere," related to gleba "clod, soil, land." Sense of "planet earth," or a three-dimensional map of it first attested 1550s. Global village first attested 1960, popularized, if not coined, by Canadian educator Marshall McLuhan (1911-80).
"Postliterate man's electronic media contract the world to a village or tribe where everything happens to everyone at the same time: everyone knows about, and therefore participates in, everything that is happening the minute it happens. Television gives this quality of simultaneity to events in the global village." [Carpenter & McLuhan, "Explorations in Communication," 1960]
- rave (v.)
- late 14c., "to show signs of madness or delirium," from O.Fr. raver, variant of resver "to dream, wander, rave," of unknown origin (see reverie). The identical (in form) verb meaning "to wander, stray, rove" first appeared c.1300 in Scottish and northern dialect, and is probably from an unrelated Scand. word (cf. Icelandic rafa). Sense of "talk enthusiastically about" first recorded 1704. Noun meaning "rowdy party" is from 1960, though rave-up was British slang for "wild party" from 1940; specific modern sense of "mass party with loud, fast electronic music and often psychedelic drugs" is from 1989. Raver, from this sense, is first recorded 1991.