What is a "backlog?" I first came into daily contact with the word in the agile development process, and many people are familiar with it in a similar context. It is essentially a collection of work that is queued to be completed. The New Oxford American dictionary defines it as "an accumulation of something, especially uncompleted work or matters that need to be dealt with." So where does the word come from?
It's obvious to notice that it's got the word log in there. You might consider ye olden times when logging was accomplished in the mountains by floating massive trunks down rivers. Surely there were times when the logs would get backed up, and need extra work to clear them and ensure they all ended up at their destination. Now we have "backed up" and "logs," and that seems like a perfectly reasonable starting point. Backlogs were what they would have been called by ye olde timey loggers. Seems simple enough.
Boy, are you stupid.
Have you learned nothing from our lessons? English cannot be reasoned through, cannot be logically understood. The earliest known occurrence of the word was in the 1680s, and literally means "a large log placed at the back of a fire."
Please stop shouting. It does have something to do with wood, yes. Congratulations.
The first known figurative use of the word doesn't occur until 200 years later in 1883, meant "something stored up for later use," and seems to directly spring from implied meaning. The definition of the word that mostly closely matches our current use, an "arrears of unfulfilled orders," didn't occur until 1932, and seems more closely related to a ship's log-book than an actual backlog.
And about that log-book. Why is it called that? We still use that definition of the word, the shortened form log coming to be used in everything from computing to family chore-charts. But a log book? That makes no sense. Were ancient mariners in there literally chiseling stuff into a stump? Maybe the original logs were kept on the sides of the ship, or the mast. Yeah, that seem reasonable enough. They didn't have books with them so they kept a record on the wood they had handy.
Turns out, it was literally a book tied to a log. Because logs float. You know, in case the ship went down.
So there you go. Once again, you realize that English cannot be trusted. She is a fickle beast, untamable, that demands to be wrestled with. Don't take your eyes from her, and no sudden movements.
SHE'S COMING FROM THE SIDE!!
Source.
It's obvious to notice that it's got the word log in there. You might consider ye olden times when logging was accomplished in the mountains by floating massive trunks down rivers. Surely there were times when the logs would get backed up, and need extra work to clear them and ensure they all ended up at their destination. Now we have "backed up" and "logs," and that seems like a perfectly reasonable starting point. Backlogs were what they would have been called by ye olde timey loggers. Seems simple enough.
Boy, are you stupid.
Have you learned nothing from our lessons? English cannot be reasoned through, cannot be logically understood. The earliest known occurrence of the word was in the 1680s, and literally means "a large log placed at the back of a fire."
Please stop shouting. It does have something to do with wood, yes. Congratulations.
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| No really. Good work. |
And about that log-book. Why is it called that? We still use that definition of the word, the shortened form log coming to be used in everything from computing to family chore-charts. But a log book? That makes no sense. Were ancient mariners in there literally chiseling stuff into a stump? Maybe the original logs were kept on the sides of the ship, or the mast. Yeah, that seem reasonable enough. They didn't have books with them so they kept a record on the wood they had handy.
Turns out, it was literally a book tied to a log. Because logs float. You know, in case the ship went down.
So there you go. Once again, you realize that English cannot be trusted. She is a fickle beast, untamable, that demands to be wrestled with. Don't take your eyes from her, and no sudden movements.
SHE'S COMING FROM THE SIDE!!
Source.
So, this comment is for your next post as well :). I really like and respond to your literary posts! Do more of these. I only get involved with the political diatribe when all the comments just get silly...
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