Smalltalk

Etymology
From ; according to (one of its creators): The name actually appeared before the first Smalltalk design, which was done in 1971. I had mentioned to someone that the "prose" of then current programming languages was lower than a cocktail party conversation, and that great progress would have been made if we could even get to the level of making "smalltalk". It then occured [sic] to me that this word was also a great pun for a language aimed at the world of small children.

As for hype: Another motive for "smalltalk" was the practice at the time of naming operating, and other, systems (which hardly did anything) after mighty indo-european gods, such as Thor, Zeus, Odin, etc. I figured that if Smalltalk ever did something neat, then people would be pleasantly surprised.

Proper noun

 * 1)  An object-oriented, dynamically-typed, reflective programming language.

Etymology
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Noun

 * 1) small talk
 * 2) a conversation involving small talk
 * 1) a conversation involving small talk

Usage notes

 * Generally masculine; the neuter is very rare.