Claim · 1992-11 · event · Stated in source · Supported

Colmerauer and Roussel (1992) write that the name 'Prolog' was devised in Marseilles in 1972 and that Philippe Roussel chose it as an abbreviation for 'PROgrammation en LOGique'.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

The birth of Prolog → explicitly credits → Philippe Roussel

Where it appears

No collection page holds this claim. It is listed with its records in the explorer.

Claim and evidence

The birth of Prologexplicitly credits ↓Philippe Roussel

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1992-11 · event Records dated 1992 →

Scope and limitsAttributed statement by the two authors, one of whom is the person credited. The same text, later (PDF p. 6), also credits Roussel’s wife with suggesting the name, as Kowalski (1988) does; choosing a name and suggesting it are different roles, so the accounts need not conflict. Both are recorded; naming credit is not adjudicated.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

The birth of Prolog

Author's site (alain.colmerauer.free.fr) · Publication date unknown

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“As is well known, the name 'Prolog' was invented in Marseilles in 1972. It was Philippe Roussel chose the name as an abbreviation for 'PROgrammation en LOGique'”

Location in source PDF p. 2, Introduction

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Alain Colmerauer; Philippe Roussel
Version: Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 cea0f99c7000536c8ff693c76a4917de805939337fd2a5aaa70941db67dc6219). Author-hosted PDF dated November 1992 (English text); later printings not compared
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-29
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Alain Colmerauer, Philippe Roussel, “The birth of Prolog”.
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Candidate pack passage, Kinds of AI and technical history (research/technical-history). The quotation (27 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, PDF line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. A cross-family machine check (31 October 2026, item 98) re-read the record’s sources and found that they support what the record states. Its point that the naming credit is recorded from both accounts without adjudication was applied at admission. No human editorial review.

Status and meaning

Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor. An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.

Relation. A document expressly attributes intellectual or practical contribution to a named actor, with the scope retained in the claim.

Date. Dateline on the title page of the author-hosted copy; no publication date of this expression was verified.

Record ID th-lp-credit-colmerauer-1992-prolog-name