Smelling vs. capturing traffic.
Which meaning of Sniff is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Sniff (smell) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Packet sniffing arrived in the 1990s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.
Wikipedia pageviews since 2015
Sniff (smell)Packet sniffing
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.
Duplicate's share of attention
Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does
The case for each meaning
Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes
Original · ancient / pre-modern
Sniff (smell)
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Duplicate · the 1990s
Packet sniffing
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More duplicated terms
Cybersecurity
Virus · Computer virusWorm · Computer wormTrojan · Trojan horse (malware)Hash · Hash functionKey · Key (cryptography)Salt · Salt (cryptography)Phish · PhishingZombie · Zombie (computing)Harvest · Email harvestingInject · Code injectionPayload · Payload (computing)Realm · Realm (security)Certificate · Public key certificateSpoof · Spoofing attackExploit · Exploit (security)Shield · DDoS protectionBounty · Bug bountyRansom · Ransomware