Surfing the Web Was Coined by a Librarian
Surfing is riding waves on a board. The internet borrowed the word in 1992, from a librarian who liked the image of riding information.
Surfing is riding breaking waves standing on a board, a practice Europeans first recorded in Hawaii in the eighteenth century. The computing sense has a documented origin: the American librarian Jean Armour Polly published an article called *Surfing the Internet* in 1992, and the phrase spread faster than the activity it described.
- Riding waves on a board. *Surfing at dawn.*
- Browsing the internet. *Surfing the web.*
- Channel surfing. *Surfing between channels.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | surfing | Big-wave surfing. |
| Verb | surf | Surf at high tide. |
| Person | surfer | A local surfer. |
| Compound | surfboard | A short surfboard. |
| Related | swell | A long swell. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The surfing was better yesterday.Conditions.
- He surfs the web instead of working.The borrowed sense.
- Swell arrives days after the storm.Waves travel far from where they form.
Surfing vocabulary
- Swell — organised wave energy travelling from a distant storm
- Break — where and how a wave collapses
- Point break — waves peeling along a headland
- Barrel — the hollow tube inside a breaking wave
- Wipeout — falling off, usually badly
From *surf*, a word of uncertain origin recorded in the seventeenth century for breaking waves on a shore, perhaps imitative of the sound.
Who coined *surfing the internet*?
Jean Armour Polly, an American librarian, in an article published in 1992. Other users of similar phrases have been suggested, but hers is documented.
Where does swell come from?
Distant storms. Wind pushes waves that organise into long-period swell and travel thousands of kilometres before breaking.