endian

English

Etymology

end +‎ -ian; from a passage in Gulliver's Travels in which an emperor, after cutting his finger after opening an egg at the large end, commands his subjects to open them at the small end; those who comply are called “Little-Endians”, while those who rebel by opening their eggs at the large end are called “Big-Endians.”

The usage of the term endian in computing was coined by Danny Cohen in 1980.

1980 April 1, Danny Cohen, Internet Experiment Note 137: On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace‎^[1]:

The root of the conflict lies much deeper than that. It is the question of which bit should travel first, the bit from the little end of the word, or the bit from the big end of the word? The followers of the former approach are called the Little-Endians, and the followers of the latter are called the Big-Endians.

Adjective

endian (not comparable)

1. (computing) Of a computer, storing multibyte numbers with the most significant byte at a greater (little-endian) or lower (big-endian) address.

   endian-neutral code

Related terms

• big-endian
• endianness
• little-endian

Anagrams

• Aidenn, Andine, Dannie, Dianne, Nadine, indane

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Old English

Alternative forms

• ændian

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *andijōną (“to end”). Cognate with Old Frisian endia (“to finish”), Old Saxon endiōn (“to come to a stop”), Old High German entōn (“to end”), Old Norse enda (“to end”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈen.di.ɑn/

Verb

endian

1. to end, make an end of
2. to finish, complete
3. to abolish, destroy
4. to come to an end, cease; to die

Conjugation

Conjugation of endian (weak class 2)

infinitive	endian	endienne
indicative mood	present tense	past tense
first person singular	endiġe	endode
second person singular	endast	endodest
third person singular	endaþ	endode
plural	endiaþ	endodon
subjunctive	present tense	past tense
singular	endiġe	endode
plural	endiġen	endoden
imperative
singular	enda
plural	endiaþ
participle	present	past
	endiende	(ġe)endod

Derived terms

• endung
• ġeendian

Descendants

• Middle English: enden
  • English: end
  • Scots: ende, end