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And me thinking that C follows B in the US English alphabet.


B stands for before C


I read that it was so named because C follows B in "BCPL"


> After creating the type system, the associated syntax, and the compiler for the new language, I felt that it deserved a new name; NB seemed insufficiently distinctive. I decided to follow the single-letter style and called it C, leaving open the question whether the name represented a progression through the alphabet or through the letters in BCPL.

http://cm.bell-labs.co/who/dmr/chist.html




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