How Did the Word 'Hack' Get Hacked?

The word 'hack' was once simply a verb meaning to cut roughly -- it's now a noun and verb with several meanings, from a bad writer to computer criminal. Learn how it transformed in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/word-hack.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here.
There was a time when the word hack was really
only a verb meaning too roughly and indiscriminately chop at something,
as with an axe. That meaning goes back to the
eleven hundreds and seems to have spawned the concept of

(00:23):
taking a hack at something, as in making a rough
attempt by the thirteen hundreds. This may have led to
the later expression can't hack it, as in someone not
being able to cope with or accomplish something, by the
nineteen fifties. Hack has also been used as a noun
since around the sixteen hundreds to describe someone who doesn't

(00:43):
particularly excel at their job, such as a writer who
churns out mediocre material or a comedian who copies other
performers jokes. But that noun comes from a different route.
It results from the old word hackney, which was a
type of horse drawn cab for hire. However, at some
point in the twenty first century, the meaning of hack

(01:06):
began to blossom, or perhaps converge into something yet again different,
meaning a workaround, an innovative shortcut that increases productivity. These days,
online articles might offer to help you hack your sleep
cycle or give you ten hacks for starting a garden.
But how does a word jump the tracks and change

(01:27):
meanings like that? It happens all the time, but in
the case of hack the most recent shift goes back
to the dawn of computer programming as we know it.
We're not talking about Ada Lovelace for once. Okay. In
nineteen fifty five, the minutes of a meeting of the
MIT Tech Model Railroad Club contain a record of one
member requesting quote that anyone working or hacking on the

(01:51):
electrical system turned the power off to avoid fuse blowing. So,
in this case, hack on seems to have meant something
civil to work on, but with presumably a different bent
from the norm, a more creative perhaps. By the nineteen sixties,
the word had expanded out from MIT and out in

(02:11):
meaning as well. A computer enthusiast might hack, and they
might be a hacker. This could imply a lot of things,
but above all, a hacker was someone who relished and
excelled at hands on computer programming, and not just learning
how to work with a computer system, but learning how
the system itself works, and probably meddling with it a

(02:33):
note that meddling here could be for good or ill.
A hacker could come up with clever fixes for known
problems with a computer system, or mischievously or criminally disrupt
a computer system. In nineteen ninety five, the movie Hackers
came out, a thriller about a group of scrappy, attractive
teenagers with code names like Crash, Override, and acid Burn

(02:55):
who save the world with their hacking skills. So over
the space of about forty years, the possible definition of
a hacker had transformed from a model railroad club member
to a Vinyl cloud Angelina. Joe Lie and were not
done yet. In the early two thousands, cyber attacks became
more possible and therefore more common and commonly reported on.

(03:18):
These are hacks large or small, that attack the security
of a person, corporation, or even governments computer systems. The
word hack became synonymous with attack to the non hacking public.
We eventually got the descriptors white hat and black hat
to distinguish between the helpful and the malicious types of hacking,

(03:39):
but hacking was still being celebrated by some. In twenty twelve,
Mark Zuckerberg's letter to Facebook investors was titled the Hacker
Way and claimed that hacking makes a system stronger, not weaker. Meanwhile,
the word hack was picked up by journalists, influencers, bloggers,
and in social media channels to refer to any kind
of non or resourceful way of doing something. A life

(04:03):
hacks could include tips for packing light for a trip,
cleaning with the magic eraser, or seasoning storebop pretzels, or
want to gain muscle or improve your memory or feel happier,
that's called biohacking. Online marketing professionals who say they can
boost your business might call themselves growth hackers. The list
goes on and on. It's possible the word hack might

(04:26):
evolve again, but for now, all we can do is
watch it spin. Today's episode is based on the article
how the word hack became So Hacked on how stuffworks
dot com, written by Jesslinshields. Brain Stuff is production of
by Heart Radio and partnership with how stuffworks dot Com
and is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts my

(04:48):
heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
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