
The origin of “log in” (2011) - pguzmang
http://www.designcult.org/2011/08/why-do-we-call-in-logging-in.html
======
brc
It's quite amazing how many words (and phrases) in common usage are actually
nautical terms.

For example...when was the last time you said: 'Everything is above board'

'That company needs a bailout'

'A storm is coming, we better batten things down'

'Did someone just let the cat out of the bag?'

'We better clear the deck so we can start this new project'

'This project is doomed. We need to cut and run'

'My son is an excellent student. He passed his exam with flying colors'

'They successfully used a loop hole to get around the rules'

'You better toe the line' (usually mis-spelled as 'tow the line' on the
internet these days)

There are many, many more.

But then you have to remember, at one point in history, all things shipping
and nautical _were_ the high tech of its day, and for a long time period.

As for me, I'll be giving any more phrases a _wide berth_ and waiting until
the _sun is over the yardarm_ so I can pop a beer.

~~~
bildung
Interesting, I did not realize the nautical context of some of these phrases
:)

Could you explain 'letting the cat out of the bag' in this context? I'm asking
because I've read a different legend: Apparently on markets a few centuries
ago, young pigs were frequently sold in bags. Sometimes people tried to sell
captured cats as farrows in the hope the buyer would not open the bags before
the deal was made and the seller far enough away. IIRC they chose cats because
they sounded similar to farrows. Lacking farrows I cannot confirm that :)

~~~
LeChuck
It refers to the cat o' nine tails, which was used to punish sailors in the
Royal Navy and was, supposedly, kept in a special bag. It's also where "not
enough room to swing a cat" is said to come from.

[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Cat-o%27-...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Cat-o%27-nine-
tails_\(PSF\).jpg)

------
philfreo
Login is a noun (and adj). Log in is a verb.

So the right one to use depends somewhat on the context. It's the "login page"
but "you need to log in". But it's not super clear in all cases.

~~~
rickdale
I always catch myself saying 'I got it _offline_ ', but I wonder if it is
incorrect to say that and instead to say I got it online. What's your take?

~~~
ZoF
Could you use the expression in context?

If you're saying e.g., "I got this pdf offline", I would argue your usage is
incorrect and that saying, "I downloaded this pdf","got it online", or some
variant would be more accurate.

That is, unless you would consider, 'got it offline' to be an idiomatic
expression for 'downloaded/retrieved-from-the-internet' in whatever region
you're from. ~

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ChuckMcM
That's a fun read. It is true that in time sharing systems the ability to
attach an identity to things the mainframe was doing was a direct requirement
of the accountants who wanted to distribute the cost of that machine to the
users.

------
jeffbr13
Like the author, I frequently get hung up on which of "log in", "sign in", or
any of their variants is 'more correct' every time I put together software
with users.

"Authenticate" might be the most correct verb, although it's not very user
friendly?

~~~
m12k
Personally I prefer "log in" to "sign in" because it makes it stand out more
from "sign up", thus hopefully leading to fewer users accidentally selecting
one when they wanted the other. And regarding the variations, I've always been
under the impression that "log in" is the act of logging in, while "login" is
either the situation/event ("a login happened") or an alternative term for
username.

~~~
jeffbr13
You're right that "log in" is more distinct from "sign up" (and works because
"logging up" doesn't make much sense), and I definitely agree with you that
'login' is a noun, if anything!

Both "log in" and "sign in" are anachronisms though - they're justified when
you're actually signing-in-and-out of a computer system or building to log
your visit, but the metaphor doesn't _technically_ make as much sense when
you're talking about authenticating the user on a website.

The evolution of the terms does let you nicely abstract away the actual
mechanism of authentication for a user, which I suppose is the point.

~~~
userbinator
> to log your visit

That is what many systems will do when you "log in", so to me that makes the
most sense.

------
cynwoody
It's interesting that the 1964 CTSS manual† linked from the article (OCR'ed by
Google††) uses "login", one word, no blank. See page 6 (page 14 of the PDF).

I knew about ships' logs, but I didn't know that the word "log" originated
from the use of a wooden log tossed overboard attached to a knotted rope, so
that the observed speed could be entered into a book that eventually came to
be known as a ship's log.

Also interesting in that manual is that each "segment" of a command (what we
now call a token) was six characters, blank-padded. The 7094 had 36-bit words
and 6-bit bytes.

†[http://bitsavers.trailing-
edge.com/pdf/mit/ctss/CTSS_Program...](http://bitsavers.trailing-
edge.com/pdf/mit/ctss/CTSS_ProgrammersGuide.pdf)

††[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SapGOxk...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SapGOxkAdpwJ:www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/ctss/CTSS_ProgrammersGuide.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

~~~
mseebach
Isn't that in reference to a command literally named "login", presumably due
to the lack of a good convention for separating words without the space
character?

Like "useradd" on contemporary Linux.

~~~
cynwoody
That's very likely.

------
jgrahamc
My father used to use a system (IBM?) that required him to 'track on' and
'track off'. Anyone come across this?

~~~
protomyth
Around here, it was "wand in" and "wand out" because they used a light pen to
read a barcode on their badge to access the AS/400\. My Dad still says "wand
in" when he logs into his Mac.

~~~
raverbashing
Talk about old-school computation

I've heard some people use the term "Abended" for a crash, because it was an
"ABnormal END" \- Abend

~~~
jessaustin
The first time I heard the word "abend", I asked the speaker what it meant. He
couldn't really answer: "you know, a _bend_!" Eventually I got the sense that
it meant "crash", but it seemed like some crashes met his unarticulable
criteria and some did not.

~~~
meric
Segmentation fault = abended. Python program crash with stack trace = not
abended?

------
lnanek2
Amusing that a techie assumed it was invented for computers and someone came
along and corrected him that it was in use long before. Props for the author
on acknowledging it with the edit at least, even if he didn't correct his
conclusion that it is an unnatural usage.

------
dlhavema
I liked this, a pretty cool origin of a now common phrase we use. I liken it
to the origin of the term Computer, the person who would compute the result of
some mathematical function...

~~~
cynwoody
[http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/comput...](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/computing-
power-used-to-be-measured-in-kilo-girls/280633/)

------
JadeNB
It's interesting that this is the second recent article recounting the history
of the term 'logbook', but in answer to a different puzzle:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7559141](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7559141).

------
esquivalience
Surprised it hasn't come up in this thread already, but an excellent and free
resource for this sort of thing is EtymOnline[0]. It's volunteer-made[1], has
an easy search and quick on-results-page answers.

Here's the search page for Log:
[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=log](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=log)

[0] [http://www.etymonline.com](http://www.etymonline.com) [1] at least mostly
- see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2580631](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2580631)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I find
[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/etymology](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/etymology)
[the talk page for that one is fun] to be pretty good as an adjunct to
EtymOnline.

------
coldcode
I seem to remember some movie or TV show where it was "jack in", sort of
plugging yourself into a system. Not sure about the opposite version though.

~~~
sp332
Or Andromeda, where you had to physically stick a jack in your head if you
wanted to do any serious work with a computer.
[http://andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Dataport](http://andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Dataport)

And the opposite of "jack in" is "jack out" :p

~~~
saalweachter
Hmm, there are indeed two pairs, in/out and on/off.

I wonder how consistent everyone is about using the correct antonym, and how
often you end up with in/off or on/out.

~~~
mjcohen
"out" is not the opposite of "in": Are you in line? No, I am out line!

~~~
saalweachter
"in"/{"out", "out of"}?

------
Theodores
Personally I do not think that 'log in' or 'sign in' are really satisfactory.
The phrases are 'verbally skuomorphic'.

On the one hand you have 'log in' and that conjures up images of a mainframe
computer with blinking lights (or something left in a toilet bowl), then, on
the other hand there is 'sign in', that is a bit namby-pamby and reminiscent
of what you do when you sign in when visiting someone in some posh office
building.

We need to introduce a new word, something that has no real-world metaphor,
that combines all the delights that go with made-up-words-for-programming.
Recursive backronyms are great, plus the English language needs a word that
rhymes with orange. There could be some real meaning to the word, as in, once
'[xxx]-ed in' then your communications are certified NSA proof. Any
suggestions?

With the right word we can introduce it in the programming community and, from
there, it could enter into the wider audience and get into the OED.

'Sign in' is a relatively new contrivance, does anyone know what the first
website was to use that? How did _they_ invent it and get others to follow
their example?

~~~
ASneakyFox
the concept of "signing in" is not unique to a web page though, you also do it
at a hotel. you also do it if you have dinner reservations. you also do it if
you pick up a package at the post office. You also might do it when you show
up for work to be put on the clock.

sign in, check in, clock in, log in. its all referring to a social process
that is unique to that engagement between those two parties. What is performed
can be widely different, so it makes sense to go to these sort of common
words.

------
rlu
I had always assumed it just came from the fact that something is literally
logging the fact that you have logged in/signed in/starting using the
service/whatever.

Always seemed rational enough to me!

------
ASneakyFox
i always pressumed the source of the phrase was due to being "logged" by the
software. eg a user is "logging on" because he is literally going on the log.
If you review the server logs youd see the user on (or in) the log.

the same kind of verbage is used in all similiar scenarios. you check in at a
hotel for instance.. Check, sign, log, etc etc are all really just various
words that roughly mean the same thing. Log just happens to be whats popular
on the web.

------
autokad
what rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs, rolls over yours neighbors dog?

