Dictionary

hackathon en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈhæ.kə.θɒn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈhæ.kə.θɑn/ (General-American)

Etymology

From hack + -athon.

Meanings

1. (informal) An event where programmers and others meet for collaborative software development, usually over several days.
   • Startup Bus is arguably the looniest of the many hackathons that take place every weekend across the country. A hackathon is a marathon computer-programming competition that, among computer programmers, is slightly less popular than video games, Ultimate Frisbee, or Game of Thrones. It lasts 24 hours to five days, and usually there is a lot of Red Bull and very little sleep. 2015 July 8, Meredith Broussard, “The Dirty Secret About Hackathons”, in The Atlantic:
   • UNITED ARTISTS, THE ONION, AND THE VIRTUAL GAMING CENTER PERSENT: THE 24 HOUR HACKATHON! n promotion of the new moive "HACKERS" (the fast-paced cyberpunk thriller opens in theaters September 15th), we are giving away a some great prizes! Be the first person to "hack" into our special web site on the internet and win a BRAND NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM! Fifty runners-up will receive special HACKERS gift packs. 1995 September 1, James Dicke, “HACKERS: Win a new computer!”, in milw.general (Usenet), retrieved 16 Dec 2016, message-ID <4282s8$15l@earth.alpha.net>:
   • Just after the Hack-A-Thon. A little tired, but it's still early, just after 3 a.m. I log onto^([sic]) the Vax and find that two of the people from the Hack-A-Thon are already on. I VMSphone RJLEWIS, a hacker and the president of our computer club, to ask him why he left the 'thon early. He answers after quite a few rings - no surprise, he was probably doing some hacking. He answers, "This isn't Crash." Hmm...probably one of his roommates. Another person joins the conversation - RLCOLLINS, one of his roommates - saying "This is Crash." Ok, I'm confused. "Why?," I ask. RJLEWIS responds that this is a person named Debbie and it's her first time on the computer. 1990 November 30, P'relan, “A Callahan's Romance”, in alt.callahans (Usenet), retrieved 16 Dec 2016, message-ID <3009.27556011@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>:
   • If these are opinions I'm sure that it happens to have something to do with the immense amounts of caffeine and sugar that I've ingested over the course of his 50hr hackathon. 1985 January 20, Andy Beals, “Re: net.men.only?”, in net.flame (Usenet), retrieved 16 Dec 2016, message-ID <3466@mit-eddie.UUCP>:
   • I bet you most programmers started out "hacking." You think you're alone in that, but I'm sure you can find hundreds of people in this newsgroup with "48-hour hack-a-thon" or similar kinds of stories. They may have been working with punched cards or with all-text displays, but hacking is hacking. That's why some of the dreaded professional programmers will see your fixation with obscure tricks as nothing more than a phase they've been through themselves. 1992 February 29, David M. Baggett, “Re: 'Demo crews'”, in comp.sys.atari.st (Usenet), retrieved 16 Dec 2016, message-ID <1992Feb29.043440.25994@wam.umd.edu>:

Forms

Synonyms

codeathon · codefest · hackfest

Translations (9)

fi hackathon (event) · fr hackathon (event) · pl hackathon (event) · mr हॅकाथॉन (event) · nl hackathon (event) · es hackatón (event) · cmn 黑客松 (event) · ru хакатон (event) · de Hackathon (event)