English word origin

Etymology of PHP

Originally an initialism of personal home page, used to describe a set of tools written by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995. With the advent of PHP 3 which was no longer a limited language it was renamed to a recursive backronym:

1 source sectionExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗

In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Source etymology 2

Original entry ↗

name

A scripting language widely used to write Web applications.

noun

A PHP script.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

{
  "templates": [],
  "links": [
    [
      "personal",
      "personal#English"
    ],
    [
      "home page",
      "home page#English"
    ],
    [
      "recursive",
      "recursive"
    ],
    [
      "backronym",
      "backronym"
    ],
    [
      "hypertext",
      "hypertext#English"
    ],
    [
      "preprocessor",
      "preprocessor#English"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "name",
      "glosses": [
        "A scripting language widely used to write Web applications."
      ],
      "tags": [],
      "recordId": "6adef8e0566a6cde8301ec7f0b5cc7b19116bad8d9820df5f5a07bd58520eb93",
      "rawRecordSha256": "86bbddc7940978a41fdfcc345cbd58dc031c3edcd3816982e14bd19c284f46e4",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 98678
    },
    {
      "pos": "noun",
      "glosses": [
        "A PHP script."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "recordId": "8be7facf9f627f7c2bfa60af3401798b7df486910f732bf7763f305640ca1596",
      "rawRecordSha256": "c874b06a90b005539578e6aa070290d88e177675a282f28cdd82b35f8843b557",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 98679
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 0,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for PHP →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger

Machine-source provenance

Source SHA-256: 5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run: 73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID: w-UEhQ