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    Why the downvote? Is there a better stackexchange site for this question? I looked for a "history of computing" stackexchange and didn't find one. I don't think the "English language" stackexchange is right because this is specific to computing. Commented Nov 18, 2020 at 10:20
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    I wouldn't vote to close it. I like historical questions about computing, and I don't think "opinion-based" is a good justification for a close vote if sufficient evidence of the etymology of the word can be provided. I, for one, am curious about what answers will be given to that one. :) Commented Nov 18, 2020 at 15:24
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    This might be better on retrocomputing.stackexchange.com, as you're looking for historical information. Commented Nov 18, 2020 at 23:18
  • Think of mouse trap and similar & its explosive behavior. The program counter reaching that instruction is catched to do something something abruptly different, possibly with mode change. Commented Dec 15, 2020 at 21:22
  • Somewhat off-topic, but not all OS's use/used a dedicated trap instruction for syscalls: devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041215-00/?p=37003 Commented Dec 17, 2020 at 18:25