Yeah, the Multics thing seems pretty definitive for me, it's clearly "print working directory". It also makes sense in context with the other basic UNIX command

Yeah, the Multics thing seems pretty definitive for me, it's clearly "print working directory". It also makes sense in context with the other basic UNIX commands: they're almost all actions or active verb phrases in some form. "Change directory", "list files, "touch", "concatenate", etc. It makes sense, because they're all programs you run that does stuff, they're not variables you read. So "pwd" as the active "print working directory" makes a lot more sense than the noun phrase "pathname of working directory", which sounds much more like a variable name, not a command name.