Origin and history of website

"place or position occupied by something," especially with reference to environment, also "land on which a building stands, location of a village," late 14c., from Anglo-French site, Old French site "place, site; position," and directly from Latin situs "a place, position, situation, location, station; idleness, sloth, inactivity; forgetfulness; the effects of neglect," from past participle of sinere "let, leave alone, permit" (from PIE *si-tu-, from root *tkei- "to settle, dwell, be home").

"the public spaces of the internet collectively," by 1992, shortened from World Wide Web (attested by 1990), from a specialized extended use of web (n.1).

World wide computer web is attested by 1987 in descriptions of the works of science fiction author William Gibson. The phrase world wide web was used by 1985 to describe telephone networks (in an article on the "phone phreaks" who hacked them). An AP story from September 1992 describes global currency markets (then in turmoil) as "a web of computer screens, telephone lines and speaker phones" [Sacramento Bee headline, Sept. 19]

Web browser and web page are attested by 1990; webmaster by 1993. Weblog and web site both are from 1994.

Except for Microsoft's Help interface and the "Web Sites" on the Internet's World Wide Web, hypertext formatting—a structure that allows cross-referenced documents to be summoned via keywords—is not as prevalent as we're led to believe. To access a Web site in all its glory, with "inline images" and fonts intact, you need a direct Internet connection and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) such as Mosaic or Cello. [Judith Lewis, "Read the Screen," LA Weekly, May 27, 1994]