Comments on: What’s The Origin of Automagically?

By: bruce2096

bruce2096 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

I've been using automagical for decades… I'm pretty sure I was using it in college, if not high school.

Searching that bastion of netliness, the usenet archives, I can find it being used casually in net.misc as early as Feb 9, 1982. — <http://groups.google.com/group/net.misc/msg/82977…(at the end).

And, it was already in the Hacker's Dictionary also published in net.misc on Feb 25, 1982 – <http://groups.google.com/group/net.misc/msg/fb66a…

Looking for the precusors of the Hacker's Dictionary, automagically is mentioned in a copy of JARGON.TXT recovered from Fall 1981 — <http://www.catb.org/jargon/oldversions/jarg110.tx…Jargon was started back in 1975 Raphael Finkel at Stanford, but I'm having problems finding anything older that the the 81 version above….

So, I think it's probably safe to say that it didn't exist 100 years ago and let's round for fun, so let's say it appeared sometime between 1900 and 1981.

By: todd_vernon84

todd_vernon84 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

Who knows.. my favorite term is "rat fucked" anyway

By: bruce2096

bruce2096 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

A quick followup, there's an entry in the urban dictionary that claims that "automagic" was used in advertising back in the 40s (for a shirt-ironing thing). -<http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=au…I have to admit that I like definition #4, though…

By: deva_hazari2084

deva_hazari2084 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

Delete this post ASAP or else you'll lose all your geek cred. Happy Thanksgiving!

By: bruce2096

bruce2096 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

ok, my last comment on this, I promise.

Here's a 1946 advert using "automagic" – <http://www.adclassix.com/ads/46thor.htm>, relatedly, with no date, here's the use of "automagically" – <http://www.friskywife.com/wp-content/images/2007/…

Oddly, the Thor company itself claims that their Automatic Washer didn't debut until the 1950s – <http://www.thorappliances.com/aboutThor/index.php…

Ok, I think I need to be done at this point.

By: Janzert

Janzert — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

I've certainly heard this word in common use within programing circles for as long as I can recall. Doing a quick search in google's usenet archives the earliest reference I could find was posted Feb 9 1982. But was also already included in the "Hackers Dictionary" posted to net.misc on Feb 25 1982. The definition given is:

AUTOMAGICALLY adv. Automatically, but in a way which, for some reason
(typically because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps
even too trivial), I don't feel like explaining to you. See MAGIC.
Example: Some programs which produce XGP output files spool them
automagically.

By: Alex Iskold

Alex Iskold — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

I like automagic a lot and use it a lot. Good word.

Why are you on Bebo?

By: bfeld

bfeld — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

Re: Bebo – I just decided to sign up for all the social networks as part of my OpenSocial / ClosedPrivate API research.

By: bfeld

bfeld — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:49 +0000

Happy to take a hit on geek cred to get more background. I never heard it used during the 7 years I was at MIT. The first time I heard it was around 1996 coming out of Vernon's mouth. I hear it every now and then, but I've never seen it used on an actual web service before.

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:43:17 +0000

Re: Bebo – I just decided to sign up for all the social networks as part of my OpenSocial / ClosedPrivate API research.