Sign in to an account? A story of log.

The word "login" is the contraction of two words "log" and "in". For the word "in" it's quite simple since it means "in", "enter", as opposed to when you log out you click on "logout" ("out" meaning "out"). The word "log" which comes from the Dutch and means "log". So what is the relationship between a log and your Internet account? To understand it, we must go back to the time of the great explorers who sailed on the seven seas, where space was still poorly known and full of dangers.

To determine the speed of the ships at a time when radar, GPS, and speedometer did not exist yet, the navigators launched a log at the bow of the ship (the bow) and measured the time that the log would reach behind the ship (the stern), they thus deduced their speed. This log or the piece of wood was connected to a thread with nodes placed at regular intervals. The counting of the number of knots gave the speed of the ship, hence the calculation of the speed of the ships in knots and not in kilometers per hour.

The operation was repeated several times during the trip in order to calculate the distance traveled which allowed the crew to find their way on the charts or to draw cards by cabotage *. All these different records were recorded in a specific log where each "log" log was listed. By deviation each log became an "entry" in a newspaper. Applied to computers this gave the word "login" to enter this particular space. We find the same idea in "blog" contraction of "Web log" since each article posted on a blog is like an entry in a newspaper of the web.

This anecdote, slipped at the time of the Christmas log will be the most beautiful effect! 

*Cabotage
[kab-uh-tij, kab-uh-tahzh]
navigation or trade along the coast.