Etymology

Backus-Naur form

Today it means: A formal notation for context-free grammars. Full definition →

First used 1964.
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The story

From the names of computer science pioneers John Backus and Peter Naur. The notation was developed by Backus in 1959 (as Backus normal form) to describe computer languages, specifically ALGOL 58, and expanded and used by Naur in the ALGOL 60 report (the result of a January 1960 meeting). The name change to Backus-Naur form was at the suggestion of Donald Knuth.

First known use, by meaning

  • From 1964. A formal notation for context-free grammars.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.