Most dictionaries or encyclopedias will agree on the etymology of the word being abbreviated from word cybernetics, taken from the Ancient Greek word kybernētēs, meaning a steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder. Merrium Webster defines the word as, ” of, relating to, or involving computers or computer networks.” The word was introduced in the ’40s by Norbert Wiener for his pioneering work in his book, Cybernetics. The term “cyberspace” came to be in the late 60s to define sensory spaces that were open and adaptable to various influences, such as human movement and other influences – oddly, almost nothing to do with computers. That all changed in the early ’80s when William Gibson wrote a couple of stories where he indelibly linked the term to online connected computers, defining cyberspace as, “A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters, and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding.“
Fun fact: The term “cybersecurity” and “cyberporn” were both introduced in the same year – 1989.
By the late 1990s, the term ‘cyber’ had come as close to being a dirty word as you can get with more than 4 letters. “Want cyber?” meant something very different than it means today – or does it? Something happened to the word ‘cyber’ – it stopped being a prefix and started being a noun. People all around began using the word cyber alone, and invariably I found myself wondering what they really meant and asking, “when you say cyber – what do you mean?” Well for the benefit for you the reader, I’ve assembled their answers below:
| Space (of course!) | Side | Hygiene | Activity |
| Truck (thank you Tesla!) | Advisory | Alert | Event |
| Goals | Incident | Problem | Information |
| Operations | Partner (Salespeople!) | War(fare) | Challenge |
| Romance (Sex) | News | Abnormalities | Crime |
| Education | Risk | Bulletin | Law |
| Threat | Bully | Physical System (CPS) | Porn |
| Squad | Hunter | Division | Team |
| Security |
So with apologies to both Merriam and Webster, I offer this suggested update to your definition:
cyber (n) – Something to do with computers that you aren’t really sure what it is, or what to call it.
Credits:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/today-cyber-means-war-but-back-in-the-1990s-it-mean-1325671487