Yes, good question. Because su was there in Unix before sudo, IIRC. And sudo means "su do", meaning do (something) as su, which in turn meant "super user" or "

Yes, good question. Because su was there in Unix before sudo, IIRC. And sudo means "su do", meaning do (something) as su, which in turn meant "super user" or "substitute user" according to Wikipedia, since it can also be used to login as other users than root , e.g.: su - tom https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_(Unix) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_(Unix)