I'm trying to trace the origins and rise in popularity of the abbreviation "tech" from "technology." From what I can tell, the term began taking off in popular culture around the early to mid-1980s, but I'm wondering where it started to appear first and how and why it became so ubiquitous from then to now. Any help appreciated.
I've consulted Tom Chatfield's book "Netymology," which traces the origins of many tech-related terms, but doesn't include "tech" specifically. I can see from this Collins Dictionary usage graph (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/techCollins Dictionary usage graph)that that the word "tech" started to rise in popularity in the early to mid-1980s. Google's Ngram Viewer also seems to confirm this timeline. I've also consulted some articles in the NYTs and New Yorker by Steve Lohr and Ben Yagoda about the origins and rise of popular technology-related phrases and words, but they focused on tracing words like "hacker" and "Big Data." I'm specifically interested in why, how, and where "tech" began to rise, in the context of being related to the Internet, software, hardware, etc. It's been suggested that it might have come out of science fiction circles around the 1960s/70s, but I'm trying to run this down.
What I'm really driving at is: I can tell with some clarity from Google's Ngram and date-restricted searches when "tech" as an abbreviation for technology began its rise, but I can't tell the how, where,, or whyof of that rise. I'm new to etymological research so was wondering if any of you could point me in the right direction as far as the right tools to use to figure these questions out. Thanks!