Firmware

How to spell firmware

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce firmware

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does firmware mean?

1. nounPermanent software programmed into a device's hardware, controlling its basic functions.

Firmware in a sentence

• The router stopped dropping connections after we updated its firmware.

• A corrupted firmware update can leave the printer unable to start.

Where does firmware come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Firmware is a modern computing compound, coined in the late 1960s by the engineer Ascher Opler, who used it to describe instructions held in a fixed, durable form between the changeable software and the physical hardware. The first element, firm, comes from the Latin firmus, meaning 'strong, steady, or stable', which reached English through Old French and once described things that were physically solid or reliable. The second element, ware, is a native Germanic word from Old English waru, meaning 'goods or articles for sale', the same element that survives in 'hardware', 'software', and old shop terms like 'glassware'. The blend captures the idea precisely: code that is more permanent than ordinary software because it is written into a chip, yet not as immovable as the metal itself. Because both halves are short and familiar, the spelling trap is simply remembering it is one solid word with no space or hyphen.

How the word is built

• firm (stable, fixed)
• ware (goods, articles, by analogy with software and hardware)