Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Mid-century: TV and science ·1975
Microsoft
microcomputer software
- Meaning
- The American software company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
- Source words
- microcomputer + software
- Coined by
- Paul Allen
- Year
- 1975
Background
Allen proposed the name (originally *Micro-Soft* with hyphen) in a 1975 letter to Gates. The hyphen was dropped by 1976. A portmanteau that became a company, rather than a company that inherited one.
Mid-century: TV and science
Two engines dominated: television (sitcom, televangelist) and post-war big science (pulsar, transistor). Many mid-century coinages came from scientific style sheets and industry journals.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.