> C copied this concept I think FORTRAN copied it first. Which makes sense, because of the original scientific target market for FORTRAN, represented in its na

> C copied this concept I think FORTRAN copied it first. Which makes sense, because of the original scientific target market for FORTRAN, represented in its name derived from “formula translating system”. Translating “a sufficiently rich mathematical language”, as Backus put it, was an explicit goal as early as 1954. C then (presumably) just followed the convention established by FORTRAN.