I read a review of a Wall Street Journal article in the Chicago Tribune about "multitasking" that said "multitasking" is a term "cribbed from computers." Really? Google seems to indicate that's true, but I thought multitasking has been around since motherhood! Surely multitasking can refer to situations other than computers or business meetings. Speaking of the latter, here is an interesting article on problems with multitasking on conference calls.

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but I thought multitasking has been around since motherhood!

It has, but until now there's been no English translation for it.

Interesting article, Kalleh. We don't really have conference calls in my workplace . . . but we do sometimes receive calls from people who have us on speakerphone. They'll obviously be doing something else while asking us a question. Sometimes that isn't a problem, but if I need to ask them some clarifying questions it can be tedious.

More often than that is the scenario where I'm helping someone in person and they take a cell phone call in the middle of our transaction. Rude!

k's q raises another interesting q. Given a term such as this one, yielding 6 million Ghits, how would one use Advanced Search to find the earliest uses

I don't think you can, Dale. As far as I know, Google has no feature that lets you select or sort by date. GoogleBooks does, but its database is much more limited.

The Jargon File has an entry, but it mentions no date.

Wikipedia's article has more information.

Earlier terms for similar concepts were multiplexing, multiprogramming, and time-sharing. An operating systems textbook I pulled down of the shelf (H M Dietel. 1990. Operating Systems) has entries for all of these terms in its index. The programming language, Ada, had a construct called multitasking which allowed a programmer to create multiple threads of control. Most modern OSes have this capability now. Ada's first standard dates from 1983. I seem to remember that Modula 2 also allowed for concurrent programming, but I don't think they called it multitasking, but I think they just called it multiprocessing because Unix tasks are called processes. Unix, dating from 1969 or so, had multitasking from the get-go. You might try talking with some old-time Unix kernel hackers.

CW, I've been on lots of conference calls recently. In a previous job, people were rude with conference calls, muting the call and making fun of those on the other end. However, it is quite a useful facility in this job, and I now find conference calls quite effective, and certainly efficient because we can save bringing in people to meetings. So I guess it depends on the workplace.

nerd thank you, I was afraid that might be the case. It's proving very idfficult to approximate the age of a term without access to certain paid sites--for example those that search through old newspapers

kalleh: Cassell's Dict of Slang however, places "multitasking" in the 1990's

I honestly think it was used in a different sense (not in IT vernacular) before that, but I am not sure how to find out.

k: Webster's New Explorer places it at 1966 in connection with the PC

Webster's New Explorer places it at 1966 in connection with the PC

The IBM PC dates from 1981 or there abouts. Did you mean computer? The PC didn't have preemptive multitasking until the release of Windows NT in 1993.

This is the earliest site, when used as a verb, from the OED:

"1986 Daily Tel. 10 Mar. 20/8 The programs also illustrate one of the most hyped features of the Amiga, an ability to ‘multi-task’, that is run several quite different functions at the same time."

Here it is as used as an adjective:

"1968 Proc. AFIPS Conf. 33 1170/1 P1 and P2 are programs running in a multi-task system and R1, R2 are resources."

Here is the earliest use from the OED when it is used as "multitasker," a noun:

"1982 Data Communications (Nexis) Mar. 277 (heading) Multitasker for the office."

And here it is as "multitasking" as a noun:

"1966 Datamation Sept. 68/1 Multi-tasking is defined as the use of a single CPU for the simultaneous processing of two or more jobs."

And "multitasking" as an adjective:

"1966 Datamation Sept. 68 (heading) Configuring multi-tasking systems."

As you can see, all of those are computer references. I guess I am wrong. I thought we'd been using the term "multitasking" in a general way for years. The OED did list more general uses of "multitasking," but that didn't seem to happen until about 1996, according to the OED, except for this one curious citation from 1969, with the word "multitask" as an adjective: "1969 Current Anthropol. 10 119/1 In firmly bounded multi-task groups or communities, this equality has to extend to all the functions that come within the group's scope."

zm: Point well taken. In my monumental laziness I found it easier to write "PC" than to spell out "computer"

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"1969 Current Anthropol. 10 119/1 In firmly bounded multi-task groups or communities, this equality has to extend to all the functions that come within the group's scope."

I think the meaning of the word in this context is very different than the one you mean, Kalleh. This example sounds like it means "groups that do multiple tasks". Your "multitasking" -- human or computer -- usually means accomplishing several tasks simultaneously by switching attention rapidly from one to another. Before computers there was no shared metaphor for this process. I was serious when I said there was no English translation.

When did the myth about woman being better at muilti-tasking develop. Was it before or after the phrase was coined.

When did the myth about woman being better at muilti-tasking develop?

Probably some time in the Neolithic, when Cro-Magnon ceased to be a nomadic hunter and gatherer, and settled down to agriculture, enjoying a beer with his bear steak. It was around the same time that pots began to be thrown.

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It was around the same time that pots began to be thrown.

At the Neolithic wife's husband, you mean?

At the Neolithic wife's husband, you mean?

I suppose my statement was ambiguous. I meant throwing pottery on a potter's wheel. As in (8) in the COED entry on throw.

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I think the meaning of the word in this context is very different than the one you mean, Kalleh.

Neveu, I see your point, but I think the intention of the phrase is the same.

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When did the myth about woman being better at muilti-tasking develop. Was it before or after the phrase was coined.

Graham, that's a good point, and that's what I was referring to above when I said "multi-tasking" has been around in the non-computer sense for awhile. I think "mult-tasking" (should there be a hyphen or not?) in the sense of women doing multiple tasks at once has been around certainly before the 90s. I just don't know how long. I suspect computers first used the term (in the 60s) and not long afterward it was used for women and mothers and the like. [BTW, I don't think it a "myth."]

"Good grief, Fred! Throwing pots at me again! Don't you know civilized people only throw pots at wheels -- not at each other! ??? Don't forget, we're Neoliths, and we shouldn't act like those ..... "

"Paleoliths! I know -- you have problems saying the word."

"Such a slovenly word ! It almost makes me want to throw up."

"Okay, okay, I'll build a wheel to throw the pots on if that'll make you happy. A Neolith neighbor showed me how."

"Oh, goodie!"

"Next, I s'pose you'll want me to build a Fire or something modern like that."

"Well, the Joneses over in the next cave have one."

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When did the myth about woman being better at muilti-tasking develop. Was it before or after the phrase was coined.

Why do you suggest it's a myth?

[BTW, I don't think it a "myth."]

Exactly my point.

Thanks, JT, for your post-neanderthalian sitcom. Though, I'd've written "civilized people only throw pots on wheels". Can't have everything.

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Neveu, I see your point, but I think the intention of the phrase is the same.

I don't. One implies concurrency and fine-grained temporal multiplexing, the other doesn't. That's a big difference.

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[BTW, I don't think it a "myth."]

You don't think that there is a myth, or you don't think the myth is incorrect? I'm considered strange among my family and friends for my ability to do many things at once. For example, listening to music, watching tv, and posting to the internet at the same time. I would say that in my experience, the ability has nothing to do with being male or female.

It's probably best if we don't start this debate.

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listening to music, watching tv, and posting to the internet at the same time.

Now, on top of that, cook dinner, keep the laundry running, break up the kids' fight over the TV remote and send them to do their homework, answer the phone, feed the dog, get the 7-year-old to set the table....all within five minutes' time, and you'll understand what Kalleh meant!

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One implies concurrency and fine-grained temporal multiplexing, the other doesn't. That's a big difference.

It's all relative, neveu.

Said so well, wordmatic! Sean, I am not worried about "getting into anything," because our discussions here are almost always civil. I think that women multi-task more than men do; that's my point. I know that Shu agrees with me because we've discussed it before. I don't consider it to be a criticism of men, just a fact...partly because of being mothers, though not only because of that. I think it is a general difference between the sexes, and I do think there are some differences (otherwise why are so many CEOs men?). With "general differences" I mean that it certainly isn't the case with every single man and woman, but it is typically the case.

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otherwise why are so many CEOs men?

I suspect that one reason is because men are not good at multi-tasking - which means that they are generally better at focusing exclusively on a task.

It is a characteristic of millionaires (and I've heard quite a few speak) that they concentrate almost exclusively on money-making schemes without allowing themselves to be distracted by such mundane matters as social intercourse.