Re: origin of "ebook"

Juliet, Chris, Richard and Kathy, thank you all for great input on this.

So it looks as though "electronic book" was a term and 
concept-in-action, when computers could be smaller than an office 
building in the 60s [ FRESS project at Brown U.], by notably Prof. Andy 
van Dam. The idea then became utilised in Hitchiker's Guide [Douglas 
Adams, 1978 - Brit - radio, later tv, later film] and Star Trek [ Gene 
Roddenberry </wiki/Gene_Roddenberry>, 1964/1966 - American - tv and film].

The ebook as a supplement or replacement to the cultural paper book 
probably came from the late Michael Hart in 1970, but first recorded use 
of the term as "E-book" was in American Libraries on May 1, 1988, though 
there seem to have been dictionary references to "electronic book" from 
1980.

Another source for the term is the team at Xerox PARC that created the 
Dynabook.

I suspect that Michael Hart's claim to have shortened the word to 
"ebook" is good, as most other short forms were still in use in the 
early years of this century; from memory of the claim, though I'd not 
recalled who'd made it, his own dating for "ebook" would be in the 
1990s. Cassell's 2005 dictionary still uses e-book. This 
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/e-book has e-book and e-Book, but 
its search line has E-book! The dictionaries clearly need to catch up 
with current usage.

This http://www.thefreedictionary.com/e-book shows e-book (Collins), 
e-book or *eBook* or *ebook (*Webster's College Dictionary) and e-book 
(HarperCollins). The OED, free online 
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/e-book?q=ebook , has 
e-book. The dictionaries clearly need to catch up with current usage.

Juliet, this is a great phrase from you "although he was known to turn 
small truths into larger ones." :-)

Joseph Harris




On 18/04/2013 14:56, Juliet Sutherland wrote:
>
> I believe the late Michael Hart of Project Gutenberg often claimed to
> have invented the term, although he was known to turn small truths into
> larger ones.
>
> Juliet Sutherland
> Distributed Proofreaders
>
> On 4/18/2013 4:05 AM, josephHarris wrote:
> >
> > I recall about ten or a dozen years ago someone on this list claimed to
> > have the first to suggest and use the term "ebook" [it may have been as
> > "e-book", "E-book" or "Ebook"], but I cannot recall now who, and cannot
> > face digging out my old discs.
> >
> > Who was it; are they still on the list; and when did they first use it?
> >
> > TIA
> >
> > Joseph Harris
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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