firewire

Meaning

Noun

• A high-speed digital link standard covered by the IEEE 1394-1995 standard.
• A system of wires or tubes designed to detect fire and trigger automatic fire-extinguishers in an aircraft engine compartment for example.

Origin

• fire + wire. In the first sense ("high speech digital link standard"), the term was originally a trade name—capitalized FireWire—used by Apple Inc. as it developed the standard in the late 1980s and early 1990s.