You say MODE-EM, I say Modem

[Charles Steinkuehler]

Jonathan Hutchins wrote:
> Quoting Garrett Goebel <garrett at scriptpro.com>: 
>  
>> DSL modem is a misnomer.  
>  
> Yeah, but 99% of the providers and hardware sellers call them that. 
>  
> It used to be said that a "Modem" was a "MODE EMulator", emulating a digital 
> serial mode connection over an analog line.  As such, a DSL Mode Emulator that 
> Emulates an Ethernet or PPP connection over DSL makes sense.   
>  
> I presonally don't buy the "Modulator-Demodulator" construction - I think it's 
> apocryphal, but it's pretty universally accepted now.  I just can't see geeks 
> abbreviating the words that way.  "ModDe" or "Moddy" I'd credit. 

I've never had any issue with the construction of modem from 
"Modulator-Demodulator" (which btw is a pretty apt description of the 
devices initially called "modems".

AFAIK, this term came not from geekdom, but from the telecom world (a 
completely different realm of geekdom and terminology vs computer 
geekdom).

The telcom folks are also the source of other similar terms, like codec 
(short for Coder-Decoder, or the A-to-D and D-to-A converter used to 
convert between digital and analog telephone signals), which lends 
support to the Modulator-Demodulator derivation.

-- 
Charles Steinkuehler
charles at steinkuehler.net