hacker n.
[originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] 1. A
person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems
and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users,
who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who
programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys
programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A
person capable of appreciating hack
value. 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. 5.
An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does
work using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'. (Definitions 1
through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6.
An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy
hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge
of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations. 8.
[deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive
information by poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network
hacker'. The correct term for this sense is cracker.
The term `hacker' also tends to connote membership in the
global community defined by the net (see the network and Internet address). For discussion
of some of the basics of this culture, see the How To Become
A Hacker FAQ. It also implies that the person described is
seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic (see hacker ethic).
It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to
describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something
of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which
new members are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego
satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but
if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labeled
bogus). See also wannabee.
This term seems to have been first adopted as a badge in the
1960s by the hacker culture surrounding TMRC and the MIT AI Lab.
We have a report that it was used in a sense close to this
entry's by teenage radio hams and electronics tinkerers in the
mid-1950s.