“hack” in “hackathon”

My understanding is that hack means to chop roughly, and later came to mean any job done shoddily. A hack job may be done badly, but works. A hack in programming is similar - an inelegant or inefficient solution, but one that works. There are still find many programmers who refer to themselves as hackers because it still refers to the spirit of tinkering, exploration and do-it-yourself. This is the type of hacking a hackathon refers to.

Hackers later became associated with the subset of tinkerers who explore via breaking into systems. There are still folks fighting the good fight (for an example, pick up a copy of 2600 Magazine, subtitle: The Hacker Quarterly) to keep "hacker" to refer to a tinkerer and "cracker" to refer to people who gain unauthorized access to systems.

Interesting. My guess was that "unauthorized access" came before "tinkering". If you are right, I would imagine that "hack" to mean "tinker" or "cope" came before computers.

From this website: http://imranontech.com/2008/04/01/the-origin-of-hacker/ :

The Tech (MIT student newspaper) Nov. 1, 1963 "Many telephone services have been curtailed because of so-called hackers, according to Prof. Carlton Tucker, administrator of the Institute phone system. … The hackers have accomplished such things as tying up all the tie-lines between Harvard and MIT, or making long-distance calls by charging them to a local radar installation. One method involved connecting the PDP-1 computer to the phone system to search the lines until a dial tone, indicating an outside line, was found. … Because of the “hacking,” the majority of the MIT phones are “trapped.” "

Thank you for that link. That is interesting. In the comment section, another person left a link to another page:

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/hacker.html

I'm not quite satisfied with those explanations. When we create a word with "er" to mean a person who does something, the verb usually comes first. For instance, "bake", I'm sure came before "baker", because the act of baking had to be invented before the word "baker" can be born. The same is true for "hitter", "driver", "swimmer", runner", "programmer", "painter", and so on... The verb has to come first.

So, the verb "hack" must have been used in the field of computers or technology before the word "hacker" was coined. And, "er" was added later to mean someone who hacks. If we want to trace the history of the word "hacker", we should trace the origin of the verb "hack" as it was first used in the field of computing or technology.

The OED shows a usage of "hack" from 1745 as :-
To make a hack of, to put to indiscriminate or promiscuous use; to make common, vulgar, or stale, by such treatment;
Not sure when it was first used to means illegal access to a computer.
It was certainly used in IT from the late sixties but mainly as a derogatory term for programmers who were not good at the job.
Some may find this document on "Real Programmers" amusing.
It is too big to post here so if you would like to read it you can get it here:-
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqaW13YXQxfGd4Ojc0MjgyMjY5Mzc5NmYxMmQ

Stephen Levy’s *Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution*, explains that the word hack in the context of computers derive from the Tech Model Railroad Club, where a hack was a clever technical modification of a rail road set. A hacker is thus someone who invents clever technical solutions.

I have seen some link here.but I have not found anything interesting
I'm not quite satisfied with those explanations. When we create a word with "er" to mean a person who does something, the verb usually comes first. For instance, "bake", I'm sure came before "baker", because the act of baking had to be invented before the word "baker" can be born. The same is true for "hitter", "driver", "swimmer", runner", "programmer", "painter", and so on... The verb has to come first.check this

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtNusl2CKM0

hacker
a chopper, cutter" perhaps also "one who makes hacking tools" early 13c. (as a surname), agent noun from hack (v.1). Meaning "one who gains unauthorized access to computer records" is attested by 1983, agent noun from hack (v.2). Said to be from slightly earlier tech slang sense of "one who works like a hack at writing and experimenting with software, one who enjoys computer programming for its own sake," 1976, reputedly a usage that evolved at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (however an MIT student from the late 1960s recalls hack (n.) being used then and there in the general sense of "creative prank" which clouds its sense connection with the "writing for hire" word, and there may be a source or an influence here in hack (v.1)).

hack (v.2)
"illegally enter a computer system" by 1984; apparently a back formation from hacker. Related: Hacked; hacking. Earlier verb senses were "to make commonplace" (1745), "make common by everyday use" (1590s), "use (a horse) for ordinary riding" (1560s), all from hack (n.2).

Always go back to the roots. Follow Anglo-Saxon all the way back to German and find the verb "hacken". Look that one up in the right kind of dictionary and find out what it means.

I agree that the verb "hack" is the key, but I think some of the postulations are overthinking it. The basic meaning is to chop roughly; a sub-meaning, used with "into," is to gain access by chopping what's in your way ("hack" one's way into a jungle, for example). It seems reasonable that the idea of gaining access into a computer by some means other than the "front door" may have been referred to as "hacking" in - by a means requiring one to remove obstacles. Thus, the back-formation "hack," thus "hacker."