Origin of the term minicomputer (was Re: PDP-1 as ...

[Evan Koblentz]

> Apparently as early as May 1987 the term minicomputer was used in the WHITE HOUSE executive offices and quoted in several newspapers, along the lines, "Without a minicomputer one really can't tell ..."
>
> Given the lack of technical expertise in Washington, this suggests a much earlier origin of the word.

I searched on www.newspaperarchive.com a few minutes ago and saw that 
same article, along with a couple of others from 1967.  But in most 
cases it's written as "mini-computer".  That hyphen may make a 
difference.  It could be newspaper editors simply deciding to hyphenate 
a then-unfamiliar word, or, it could be that whoever said the original 
quote meant it as, "Without a miniature computer," while having zero 
knowledge that something technically called a "minicomputer" was being born.