Etymology

software

soft·ware
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Today it means: Encoded computer instructions, usually modifiable (unless stored in some form of unalterable memory such as ROM). Full definition →

Middle English ware ← Old English waru ← Proto-West Germanic *waru
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The story

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

Computing sense from soft + -ware, by contrast with hardware (“the computer itself”). Coined by John Tukey in 1958. The earlier sense of software to mean tangible products with a soft texture may have fallen out of common usage before the computing sense was created.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.