There is a code object called "C Runtime" (crt0.o)[1]. This was a good name at the time. Its a bit of code that gets executed literally "at runtime". When you

There is a code object called "C Runtime" (crt0.o)[1]. This was a good name at the time. Its a bit of code that gets executed literally "at runtime". When you run a program, this object gets invoked to setup the stack and call main(). Its just a bit of assembly. Then, decades later, languages like Java overloaded the term "runtime" to refer to their interpreter / vm. This causes confusion to this day, evidently. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crt0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crt0