Hack
/hæk/noun
To cut or chop roughly; by extension, to gain unauthorized access to a computer system.
Did you know?The computer sense of *hack* grew out of 20th-century hacker culture, where a “hack” was a clever, improvised technical trick—not originally a crime term.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
haccian
“to cut or hack apart”
Middle English
ME
hacken
“to chop roughly, cut with repeated blows”
16th Century
English
hack
“a rough cut or blow; to cut with heavy, irregular strokes”
20th Century
English
hack
“a technically clever improvised solution; later, unauthorized computer intrusion”
Modern English
English
hack
“to cut roughly or to break into a computer system”