Etymograph

English

bloatware

Bloatware comes from Proto-Germanic *warō ‘a good, merchandise, ware’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*warō‘a good, merchandise, ware’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*warureconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150waru
  4. English1500–presentsoftware
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1996bloatware

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*warō‘a good, merchandise, ware’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*warureconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150waru
  4. English1500–presentsoftware
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1996bloatware

Earliest quotation: 1996, Ed Foster, Passing the bloatware buck: Programmers finger deadlines, dr: “Today’s software development cycle does not allow time to…”

A compound of bloat + -ware

Middle English blot

English bloat

The story

Originally in the sense “unwieldy software”; the sense “pre-installed software” has become predominant since the 2010s.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *wer- ‘to heed, watch, guard, protect’

wear, guard, con, garage, regard, ward, worm, verge, optic, warn, weir, garrison, panorama, beware, reverence, vermin, revere, wry, vermilion, prosaic, diorama, guaranty, milliner, vermicelli, vermeil, vermiculite, varmint, 64 more

through English software

malware, firmware, freeware, shareware, 20 more

Today it means

noun Software that is packed with too many features and therefore slow or unwieldy; software that is inefficiently designed and occupies an excessive amount of memory or disk space.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *warō / bloatware

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