# Etymology of "Surfing the Internet" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959 "2005-01-16T02:08:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/1 "2005-01-16T02:08:34Z")
Talking in #straightdope a moment ago, I mentioned to another Doper that I was on a break from a movie I am watching while surfing the board and for some reason, the phrase jarred me. Anyone that uses the internet knows what it means but how did the phrase gain such popular usage? Looking at [etymonline.com](http://etymonline.com), its first recorded usage was in 1993 but it doesn’t give anything further than that. Does anyone know where it was first used and in what context? Wouldn’t some other verb make more sense? Like crawling (the world wide web)? How did surfing become so ubiquitous? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/2 "2005-01-16T02:22:26Z")
Think: “California Computer Industy of the 90’s”. Then, consider a beach culture overlap. No challenge. ---
**Author:** ![bashere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bashere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bashere)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/3 "2005-01-16T02:32:47Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Think: “California Computer Industy of the 90’s”. > > Then, consider a beach culture overlap. > > No challenge. The phrase predates the “California Computer Industry of the 90’s”, in that is was coined in 1991. It comes from the phrase “channel surfing”, and was first coined by Jean Armour Polly, and is first seen in a USEnet post on June 6, 1991. “Surfing”, meant to refer to transience and aimlessness was a common verb at the time; it wass used in the aforementioned “channel surfing”, “couch surfing” (staying at friends houses one after another) and shelf-surfing (browsing aimlessly through books at a library). The phrase did not have anything to do with the “beach culture overlap”, in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/4 "2005-01-16T02:33:11Z")
Meh. Much more likely derived from analogy to “channel surfing”. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/5 "2005-01-16T02:37:19Z")
And those phrases came from _where?_ ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/6 "2005-01-16T03:03:13Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > And those phrases came from _where?_ Not the “California Computer Industy of the 90’s”. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/7 "2005-01-16T03:07:58Z")
> [@bashere](#): > > The phrase predates the “California Computer Industry of the 90’s”, in that is was coined in 1991. It comes from the phrase “channel surfing”, and was first coined by Jean Armour Polly, and is first seen in a USEnet post on June 6, 1991. Google Groups cite, please? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/8 "2005-01-16T06:11:04Z")
[Interesting article here](http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html) about the etymology of the phrase. Look all the way at the bottom of the page. [This is the Google groups cite](http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.admin.policy/browse_frm/thread/3e25421e2a53d4c?hl=en&rnum=1) for the above poster. ---
**Author:** ![bashere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bashere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bashere)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/9 "2005-01-16T06:59:45Z")
> [@rfgdxm](#): > > Google Groups cite, please? In addition, here is the Jargon File entry for [Surfing](http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/surf.html) that confirms the theory that it derives from channel surfing. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-surfing-the-internet/284959/10 "2005-01-16T12:35:22Z")
Thanks, **bashere** and **pulykamell**.