Etymology

bloatware

B3L1O1A1T1W4A1R1E1

Today it means: 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. Full definition →

English softwarebf. ← Middle English ware ← Old English waru
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The story

  1. Englishbloat
  2. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
  3. Proto-Germanic*samþuz /*samftuz
  4. Proto-West Germanic*samft(ī)
  5. Old Englishsōfte
  6. Middle Englishsofte
  7. Englishsoft
  8. Proto-Germanic*warō
  9. Proto-West Germanic*waru
  10. Old Englishwaru
  11. Middle Englishware
  12. Englishsoftwarebf.
  13. English todaybloatware

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.