Origin of the Name | Bluetooth® Technology Website (2024)

FAQs

Origin of the Name | Bluetooth® Technology Website? ›

Bluetooth is the Anglicised version of the Scandinavian Blåtand/Blåtann (or in Old Norse blátǫnn). It was the epithet of King Harald Bluetooth, who united the disparate Danish tribes into a single kingdom; Kardach chose the name to imply that Bluetooth similarly unites communication protocols.

Etymology. The word technology comes from two Greek words, transliterated techne and logos. Techne means art, skill, craft, or the way, manner, or means by which a thing is gained. Logos means word, the utterance by which inward thought is expressed, a saying, or an expression.

Harald I was also famous for having a dead tooth, which was said to have a dark blue or grey hue, hence earning him the nickname “Bluetooth” – a moniker that would lend itself to tech more than a thousand years later. Now, Bluetooth was meant to be just a placeholder until a better name could be thought of.

Reading the runesThe Bluetooth logo combines the H and B runes from the Younger Futhark runic system, used in the Viking age. The first time King Harald was given the nickname Blåtand (Bluetooth) is in the Roskilde Chronicle, a 12th-century Latin text probably written by a monk from eastern Denmark.

Bluetooth technology

The Bluetooth wireless specification design was named after the king in 1997, based on an analogy that the technology would unite devices the way Harald Bluetooth united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom.

The word has Greek roots (techne for art or craft; -ology for branch of learning) and was coined in English in the seventeenth century. At that time, the word meant a “branch of learning, or discourse, or treatise concerned with the mechanic arts.”

In ancient times, technology was defined by Homer and Hesiod as the spoken word of manual craft or cunning skill (Luna, 1994). By 330 BC, Aristotle coined the Greek term technologia and split scientific knowledge into three parts: theoretical science, practical science, and productive science (technology).

Origin of the Bluetooth Name

It's not an acronym and doesn't stand for anything. So what does it mean? Surprisingly, the name dates back more than a millennia to King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson who was well known for two things: Uniting Denmark and Norway in 958.

Bluetooth technology allows devices to communicate with each other without cables or wires. Bluetooth relies on short-range radio frequency, and any device that incorporates the technology can communicate as long as it is within the required distance.

Initially, Intel called its technology “Biz-RF,” while Ericsson called its mechanism “MC-Link” and Nokia used the terms “'Low Power-RF.” Then longtime Intel engineer Jim Kardach proposed that the name Bluetooth be used — at least temporarily.

Where is Bluetooth buried? ›

According to Adam of Bremen, Bluetooth was brought back to Denmark after his death and buried at Roskilde, the Viking capital of Denmark and now the location of Roskilde Cathedral, where Danish monarchs have been buried throughout the centuries since the country converted from paganism to Christianity.

It turns out the design actually contains two letters, rather than just a slightly insect-like B. What you're actually looking at is a superimposition of the Nordic runes for the letters H and B (below), for 'Harald Bluetooth'.

The ubiquitous logo symbolizes "a bind rune merging the Younger Futhark runes (Hagall) ᚼ) and (Bjarkan) (ᛒ), Harald's initials," according to Bluetooth's website.

Jaap Haartsen led the invention of Bluetooth^® wireless technology. Used worldwide, Bluetooth allows a seemingly endless array of devices to wirelessly connect and communicate over short distances. Haartsen was born in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1963.

Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs).

Bluetooth was named after a tenth-century king, Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway. (Also known as Harald Bluetooth Gormson or Harald I of Denmark) Bluetooth is an anglicized version of Harald Blaatand, who was known for his unification of previously warring tribes from Denmark (including now Swedish Scania).

The word "technology" originates from the Greek word "tekhne" and its Latin equivalent "ars," both of which refer to a skill or practical process accompanied by scientific knowledge [??]. In ancient Greece, "techne" was associated with skill in the arts [??].

The word technology stems from two Greek words: tekhne meaning an art or skill and logia referring to a knowledge or body of science. The Greek tekhnologia is the systematic treatment of an art, skill or science forming the root of the modern (first used in the 1600s) word technology.

The term technology comes from the Greek word techne, meaning art and craft, and the word logos, meaning word and speech. It was first used to describe applied arts, but it is now used to describe advancements and changes that affect the environment around us.

The term “technology” comes from the ancient Greek τέχνη‎, techne, meaning “art, skill, craft.” In modern practice, definitions of technology often vary according to the discipline and era under examination.