So 'run commands' is the historically correct interpretation. For me, I've heard it explained as 'run configuration' many years ago and that is the explanation

So 'run commands' is the historically correct interpretation. For me, I've heard it explained as 'run configuration' many years ago and that is the explanation that stuck because rc is in essence used for config files no matter if they run commands or not. Others have found different expansions, which are probably equally obvious for them. The ones I stumbled upon by a quick search [1,2,3,4]: run commands run control run configuration runtime configuration resource control Maybe there are more. [1] https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/3467/what-does-rc-in-bashrc-stand-for/3469#3469 https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/3467/what-does-rc-i... [2] https://superuser.com/questions/144339/vimrc-screenrc-bashrc-kshrc-etc-what-does-the-rc-mean https://superuser.com/questions/144339/vimrc-screenrc-bashrc... [3] https://askubuntu.com/questions/23482/what-does-rc-in-bashrc-nanorc-stand-for https://askubuntu.com/questions/23482/what-does-rc-in-bashrc... [4] http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch10s03.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch10s03.html