Packet
Etymology
A diminutive of "pack" — a little bundle. The term was coined by Welsh engineer Donald Davies in 1965 for his "packet switching," the idea of chopping a message into labeled pieces that each find their own way through a network. This is why the internet is so resilient: packets reroute around damage, and no single fixed line must stay open for a conversation to continue.
noun · /PAK-it/
A small chunk of data that travels the internet independently and is reassembled at the destination.
What it names
The counterintuitive design at the heart of the internet: nothing travels whole; everything is broken up, routed separately, and rebuilt.
Example
When a few packets were lost, the video briefly pixelated before catching up.
Related idea
Packet switching contrasts with the old circuit switching of telephone calls, which reserved one continuous line end to end — packets instead share the network, filling gaps left by everyone else’s traffic.