Cyberspace is the imagined space in which online communication happens. In cyberspace, the frontiers of cyberspace, cyberspace law.
The word was coined in fiction before the thing existed, by William Gibson in 1982, and it shaped how people pictured networks for a generation. It now sounds dated, which is what happens to a metaphor once the thing becomes ordinary.
1nouncyberspaceThe imagined space in which online communication happens.
“My lost email must be floating around somewhere in cyberspace.”
cyberspace is a space.
Cybernetics plus space, coined by the novelist William Gibson in 1982.
Anglo-Norman
space
Middle English
space
English
space
English, today
cyberspace
cybernetics and space, equivalent to cyber- + space, coined by Q188987 in his short story collection Burning Chrome (1982) and popularized in his novel Neuromancer (1984). space comes from Middle English space, from Anglo-Norman space, from espace. From Middle English space, from Anglo-Norman space, variant of espace, espas, et al.; and spaze, variant of espace, from Latin spatium, from Proto-Indo-European (s)peh₂- (“to stretch, to pull”). Partially displaced native rum, whence Modern English room.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA