Etymology

ad-hoc polymorphism

Today it means: A kind of polymorphism where polymorphic functions can be applied to arguments of different types, as they can denote a number of distinct and potentially heterogeneous implementations depending on the types of argument to which they are applied. Full definition →

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The story

Coined by British computer scientist Christopher Strachey in 1967.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.