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All of the modern meanings seem to be rooted in its widepread use as slang throughout MIT, starting in the 1960s. There, the original meaning of "hack" was an elaborate and flamboyant student prank; it was used with hacker, meaning "one who perpetrates a hack". Past MIT hacks include:
Over time, the meaning of the word there was expanded, perhaps through contact with the ham radio community, which used it in something close to the following meanings. In any event, it came to mean either a kludge, or the opposite of a kludge, as in a clever or elegant solution to a difficult problem. In the term " hack value" it also acquired a meaning of anything that was simultaneously fun and clever.
The initial hacker community at MIT, particularly those associated with the Tech Model Railroad Club, applied this pre-existing local slang to computer programming, producing the variant which first came into common use outside MIT. A "hack" now meant a quick fix to a computer program problem, as in "That hack you made last night to the editor is working well". A hacker came into the lexicon as meaning one who hacks, using this definition. The surface implication (which might be a modest mocking and play on the literary definition) was a casual attempt to fix the problem, but the deeper meaning was something more clever and thus impressive.
It was used especially among US university computing center staff, such as those at Stanford in the period beginning approximately in the mid- 1960s. The context determined whether the complimentary or derogatory meanings was implied. Phrases such as "ugly hack" or "quick hack" generally referred to the latter meaning; phrases such as "cool hack" or "neat hack" referred to the former.
In a similar vein, a "hack" may refer to works outside of computer programming. For example, a math hack means a clever solution to a mathematical problem. The GNU General Public License has been described as a copyrightA copyright is a form of intellectual property that grants its holder the sole legal right copying their works of original expression, such as a literary work, movie, musical work or sound recording, painting, computer program, or industrial design, for a hack. All of these uses now also seem to be spreading beyond MIT as well.
The term has since acquired an additional and now more common meaning, since approximately the 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends; this more modern definition was initially associated with crackerCracker could refer to: Cracker a type of biscuit Christmas cracker Computer cracker sometimes incorrectly called a hacker Cracker a British television series Cracker an American television series also known as Fitz''. Crackers a movie Cracker a band Cracs. This growing use of the term "hack" is to refer to a programA computer program (often simply called a program is an example of computer software that prescribes the actions (" computations") that are to be carried out by a computer. Most programs consist of a loadable set of instructions which determines how the c that (sometimes illegally) modifies another program, often a computer game, giving the user access to features otherwise inaccessible to them. As an example of this use, for Palm OSPalm OS is an operating system made by PalmSource, Inc. for personal digital assistants (PDAs) manufactured by various licensees. History Palm OS was originally developed by Jeff Hawkins for use on the original Pilot PDA by US Robotics. 0 was present on t users, a "hack" refers to an extension of the operating system which provides additional functionality.
Sometimes the jargon used by hackers is thought of a language in its own right, called hackish.
The term hacking is the act of constructing furnitureFurniture is the collective term for the movable objects which support the human body (seating furniture and beds), provide storage, and hold objects on horizontal surfaces above the ground. Storage furniture is used to hold or contain smaller objects suc with an axeAn axe is a tool with a metal blade fastened to a handle at 90 degrees, commonly used to split wood. Axe is the name of two rivers in the South of England. See: River Axe, Devon, River Axe, Somerset Colloquially, axe is a general name for an electric guit, which may have led to the computer-industry compliment of calling a programming effort a hack, although the etymology is more likely rooted in the MIT use.