Why Is It Called 'Cache'? — The Origin of the Term

The Story

The word “cache” comes from the French verb cacher — “to hide.” In the 18th century, French fur trappers in North America would stash supplies and furs in concealed underground pits called caches. They’d hide their goods, return later, and retrieve them quickly without traveling back to base.

When computer engineers in the 1960s needed a name for a small, fast memory that stored frequently accessed data, “cache” was the perfect fit. It’s a hidden stash — data you’ve put aside so you can grab it fast.

The concept was first implemented in the IBM System/360 Model 85 in 1968, which introduced a “buffer memory” that automatically kept copies of frequently used instructions. The term “cache memory” was officially adopted in the early 1970s.

How It Evolved

Cache is now everywhere in computing. The CPU has a hierarchy of caches — L1 (fastest, smallest), L2, and L3 (largest, slowest) — each hiding data closer to the processor for near-instant access. Your browser caches web pages, images, and scripts so returning to a site doesn’t require downloading everything again. Your database caches query results. Your DNS resolver caches IP addresses.

The concept is so fundamental that every programmer learns early: the two hard things in computer science are cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.

Did You Know?

The French cacher comes from Latin coactare (“to compress, to stow away”). By contrast, the unrelated English “cachet” (prestige) comes from French cachet meaning “seal.” A cache and a cachet are not the same thing — but having a cache of data does make you feel pretty important.

FAQ

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