מַדְפֶּסֶת (madpeset) — printer

Etymology

The root ד.פ.ס was already fully developed in Hebrew by the 16th century, during the heyday of the Soncino family's printing dynasty. In their printing houses, typesetters (dofesim) printed (hidpisu) books on printing presses (mekhonot defus). These presses worked, with minor variations, on the same mechanical principle as the press used to print modern newspapers.

A printer — the machine attached to a computer — operates on a fundamentally different principle: it does not produce an entire page at once but builds it up line by line. The ancestor of the printer is the teleprinter: an automatic typewriter developed as an enhancement of the telegraph, which automatically converted alphanumeric input at one end into Morse code, while a corresponding teleprinter at the other end converted the code back into letters and numbers on paper.

More sophisticated teleprinters served as the input/output mechanism for early computers. When Israel's first electronic computer, the WEIZAC, was built at the Weizmann Institute in 1955, it was equipped with a Flexowriter teleprinter. "You know, now that you ask me — I really don't know," Prof. Aviezri Fraenkel, who worked on the WEIZAC from the start of the project, told Haaretz's supplement when asked how they referred to the printer in Hebrew at the time. "We only spoke English. I don't think there was a Hebrew word for it — we just called it the 'Flexowriter' or 'teleprinter.'"

The WEIZAC was not used only by the small team of applied mathematicians at Weizmann. The Central Bureau of Statistics and the security establishment also used it, and they apparently called the teleprinter mekhonah katavit ("writing machine"), as emerges from a 1958 lecture by Rafael Bar-On of the Bureau.

In 1958, friction over computer time between Weizmann scientists and IDF officers led the army to decide it needed its own computer. A delegation traveled to the United States, eventually choosing a Philco 2000. On June 15, 1959, the IDF Computer Unit — MAMRAM (Center for Computing and Automated Record-Keeping) — was established under the command of Mordechai Kikiyon, reporting to Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin. Kikiyon apparently coined the first Hebrew term for what we now call a printer: in an August 1959 circular to relevant officers headed "Re: madpisha (HIGH SPEED PRINTER) for MAMRAM's computer," he wrote: "The type of madpisha must be determined taking into account the requirement for Hebrew and English printing capabilities." From the computer's arrival in 1961 through the mid-1960s, the IDF used מַדְפִּיסָה.

The word מַדְפֶּסֶת was coined by an anonymous IBM employee in 1964, for the new IBM 360 system's printer units. Earlier IBM machines marketed in Israel — such as the IBM 1401 (from 1962) — were called melvakhat (from "board/tablet"), a rough translation of the English "tabulator." The IBM 360 was purchased by, among others, the IDF, Bank Leumi, El Al, the Technion, and the Israeli government. IBM-trained employees at all these organizations were taught to use the word מַדְפֶּסֶת, and it appeared in the press and professional literature from 1965 onward.

Key Quotes

"יש לקבוע את סוג המדפיסה, בהתחשב בדרישה לאפשרויות ההדפסה בעברית ובאנגלית" — Mordechai Kikiyon, IDF circular, August 1959 (first Hebrew term for printer: madpisha)

"אתה יודע, עכשיו שאתה שואל אותי. אני באמת לא יודע... דברנו רק באנגלית. לא נראה לי שהיה לזה מילה עברית — פשוט קראנו לזה 'פלקסורייטר' או 'טלפרינטר'" — Prof. Aviezri Fraenkel, Haaretz supplement, on the WEIZAC era

Timeline

• 16th century: Root ד.פ.ס fully established in Hebrew through Soncino family printing houses
• 1955: WEIZAC, Israel's first electronic computer, built at Weizmann Institute; equipped with Flexowriter teleprinter; no Hebrew word in use
• 1958: IDF decides to procure its own computer
• June 15, 1959: MAMRAM (IDF Computer Unit) established under Mordechai Kikiyon
• August 1959: Kikiyon coins מַדְפִּיסָה as Hebrew term for printer
• 1961–mid-1960s: IDF uses מַדְפִּיסָה
• 1962: IBM 1401 marketed in Israel; printing unit called מַלְוָחֶת
• 1964: Anonymous IBM employee coins מַדְפֶּסֶת for IBM 360 printer units
• 1965: מַדְפֶּסֶת appears in press and professional literature for the first time

Related Words

• דְּפוּס — "printing press"; from Greek τύπος (type/impression)
• הִדְפִּיס — "to print" (verb); used in Soncino era
• מַדְפִּיסָה — earlier (1959) Hebrew term for printer, coined by Kikiyon; replaced by מַדְפֶּסֶת
• מַלְוָחֶת — "tabulator" (IBM term used 1962–1964); from לוּחַ (board/tablet)
• מָחְשֵׁב — "computer"; coined in the same era