Re: origin of "ebook"

"Christopher R. Maden" <crism-KB/[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.culture.literature.ebook-community
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On 04/18/2013 01:21 PM, I wrote:
> That same article says that “ebook” was a well-established term by
> 1985, but does not say when the contraction happened.

I misread the Wikipedia article; that reference was to the term
“electronic book.”

> I’ve asked a friend who is a science editor at a major dictionary to 
> research it.

Their earliest citation seems to be the same as the OED:

American Libraries

May 1, 1988

Public librarians take cool view of future; leadership, not technology,
may be the issue.

BYLINE: Hennem, Thomas J., Jr.

SECTION: Pg. p390(3) Vol. V19 No. N5 ISSN: 0002-9769

"* The E-book, a small, hand-held, flat recording device able to replay
text as a portable cassette player replays sound.  Librarians who argued
that mass storage devices could never replace the book may be wrong-you
can cuddle up with the E-book."

This is clearly referring to what most of us would now call an e-book
reader, but is consistent with some earlier uses (like the Rocket eBook).

So, let’s help the lexicographers: what is the earliest published use of
“ebook” or “e-book” you can find?  Internet sources count, as long as
the dating is reliable (e.g., the Internet Archive or USENET).

~Chris
-- 
Chris Maden, text nerd  <URL: http://crism.maden.org/ >
  FIVE TONS OF FLAX
GnuPG fingerprint: DB08 CF6C 2583 7F55 3BE9  A210 4A51 DBAC 5C5C 3D5E


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