Etymology

Harvard format

Today it means: The author-date method of parenthetical referencing, one of several standard formats for citing information from any source bibliographically. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

So named because Harvard University was a place where its use was common, at a time when today's generic names for referencing systems (author-date and author-number) hadn't yet acquired any degree of establishment.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.