Surprising origins of the word ‘coding’

Words reflect human history and evolution. A word may start meaning something, but depending on how we develop as a species, the meaning and usage of that word changes. Sometimes words move from one language to another, and then linguists have to time-travel back to where it started. These are called ‘root words’. Today we are going to dig deep towards the root word for ‘code’ or ‘coding’.  

What is the root word for ‘code’? 
‘Coding’ or ‘to code’ is the verb version of ‘code’. In 2021, it might be hard to imagine that code, a name for computer instructions, comes from a word related to a tree trunk! The root word is Latin ‘codex’, which means "a book of laws". But Latin got this word from elsewhere too. The Proto-Italic ancient language systems had a word ‘kaud-ek’ or ‘kehu-d’ which meant to etch or cleave on wood. As Indians, we are familiar with the word ‘khod’ which means to dig or etch.

This common root is not surprising at all, since many cultures across the globe were using wooden tablets at that time to communicate by etching symbols on them. They started coating the tablets with wax to make it easier to etch and preserve the tablet. At that time, the most important things requiring writing were tribal laws. So the first codes of law were etched on wooden tablets, and yes, this was the idea form where we have coding today. The French adopted the Latin word for their law books, and British people borrowed the French word in the early 14th century. 

How did ‘code’ evolve into its modern meaning? 
The concept of a social "code of honour" originated in the 18th century. In the 19th century, the British military began to use codified communication. We find evidence of this dating back to 1808. In 1830’s came the Morse Code, a system of signals that convey meaning. In 1879, telegraphed messages were written in code. In 1946, we first had the dictionary definition "system of expressing information and instructions in a form usable by a computer". And finally, in 1987, people started talking of writing code or coding, in the sense we use it now.