It's mysterious, all right. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128708/why-wasnt-creat-called-create https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128708/why-wa

It's mysterious, all right. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128708/why-wasnt-creat-called-create https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/128708/why-wasnt-cr... The case where things are given three or four letter codes is more comprehensible. Baudot code from the 19th C calls letters and figures LTRS and FIGS, though I'm not sure when exactly that got established as the normative spelling. Presumably LTRS and FIGS can be printed on a smaller keycap than the full word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baudot_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baudot_code So at a certain point abbreviations became both useful and fashionable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbreviation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbreviation (See also http://www.thepotteries.org/mark/w/wedgwood-date.html http://www.thepotteries.org/mark/w/wedgwood-date.html for a 19th C example of three-letter coding.)