A printed physical copy of digital information or a document, as opposed to an electronic copy on a computer or screen.
From 'hard' (Old English) and 'copy' (from Old French 'copie'), a modern computing term that emerged in the 1960s to distinguish physical from digital documents.
The term 'hardcopy' became necessary only when digital documents existed as a comparison—older generations would have simply said 'print it out,' showing how technology creates new vocabulary categories.
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