John Tukey; Coined the Words ‘Software’ and ‘Bit’

John Tukey, 85, a retired Princeton University statistician who coined the words “software” and “bit.” Tukey was one of the nation’s most influential statisticians, but he may be best remembered for his contributions as an amateur linguist. Tukey is credited in the “Annals of the History of Computers” as the person who, in 1946, coined the word “bit,” a contraction of “binary digit,” the term describing the 1s and 0s that are the basis of computer programs. Tukey suggested the shorter “bit” to computer experts at AT&T; Bell Laboratories, where he was a researcher. “Bit” was easier on the tongue than the other possibilities they were considering, such as “binit” and “bigit,” so it stuck. Twelve years later, Tukey came up with the word “software” to describe the programs on which electronic calculators ran, first using it in a 1958 article he wrote for American Mathematical Monthly. Also in the 1950s, he served on a panel that reviewed the findings of the first Alfred Kinsey study of human sexual behavior; Tukey and his colleagues found the study seriously flawed. In the 1970s, he headed the National Research Council committee study that led the Food and Drug Administration to require labels on aerosol cans warning of environmental hazards. He also served as a consultant for NBC for several decades, successfully predicting the outcomes of all the presidential elections from 1960 to 1980. On Wednesday of a heart attack in New Brunswick, N.J.