His choice of the word "programming" is rock solid -- at the time, "programming" meant "planning a set of actions" and was already used this way in the military

His choice of the word "programming" is rock solid -- at the time, "programming" meant "planning a set of actions" and was already used this way in the military sphere. Computer programming is planning a set of actions for a computer to take. The latter use has taken over in the intervening half century, to the point where we no longer specify that we're programming a computer (what else would one program?) But at the time it was entirely reasonable for Bellman to choose "programming." "Dynamic," on the other hand, was a masterful sales job.