Sometimes it's nice to know where the words we use everyday as programmers actually come from. For example, I can explain how a computer screen relates to a flat material onto which diaporamas used to be projected. I can explain how a computer program relates to the word in the musical domain, where a "program" describes the list of pieces to be played during a show -- everything is planned, written, and unwinds as planned. And so on...
But I struggle to find the intention behind the word "application". I see two possibilities:
- a theoretical or abstract concept is "applied" to a real-world domain
- something is "applied onto" something else as a poster is applied onto a wall
So a computer application would be either the useful realization of an abstract/useless idea, or something which is glued onto something else, however neither explaination really makes sense to me.
What is the reason behind an application being called an application?