//Etymology Hack means to "cut open". In this publication I will take it to mean "to work on a project in a novel way to solve a problem in a short period of time".
In the beginning of the internet computer networking enthusiasts started "hacking" the networking systems. They created new hardware and software. They hacked it to make it more secure, fast and-or compatible/reliable. It was soon realized that hacking could become an offensive weapon. Some people started "hacking" other people's networks for fame and fortune. Hollywood found this glamorous and created a persona of a "hacker". Spectacles, allergies, shabby clothing, rough hair and mighty speedy on the keyboard. [Insert movie references and gif/pictures.] Hollywood portrayed a hacker as someone "hacking away" on a terminal with 4-6 shells opened typing in commands at speed of light. He (or Sandra Bullocks) would be breaking any security barriers that may come. This gave rise to a cult like aspiration for some people wanting to be 'hackers'. They started hanging out on cyber chat groups on IRC in the darknet [Insert examples of channels in darknet]. As is the case in most hollywood characters, 'hackers' were not normal people. They didn't feel they should talk like a normal person either. It was considered standard to do a lot of homework and even then, think twice about asking someone on an IRC channel for help. GTFO, RTFM, STFU and other acronyms became common. All these groups still exist. The group was divided between phrackers, hackers, script kiddies to name a few. They were divided into white hat and red hat. Those were the dark days of "hacking". For more reading on this type of hacking, read: ???
At the same time there were the underdogs, the real "hackers". People who cut open hardware and software to make it better. There were amazing projects coming out of it: Linux and GNU to name a few. These are the good intentioned "geeks" who started our current day hacker culture.
Fast farward to mid 2000s when the same concept of "hacking" and "hacker" was turned around by the very people who kickstarted the culture to take back its legacy: the genuine computing enthusiasts. A hackathon was born. People thought this was a hacking festival where people would come and break networks across company, city or country boundaries. While that may have been the case sometimes, majority of the hackathons tried to reclaim the original definition of a hack.
Thanks to them, today a "hack" means a quick and novel (usually dirty) solution to a problem. For instance "growth hack" means an uncommon technique that uplifts a company or product's growth (user aquisition) exponentially. Within few years, the word has transformed not only from being a negative one to a positive one, it has seeped into other disciplines such as literature, hardware, travel, medicine, finance. [Give examples] Not only is there a flavor of a hackthon for each industry [Exmaples. images] that requires a computer to work, other industries where computing is not so primary are also adapting the concept. Today, a typical hackathon is 24-48 hours long where participants use their skills around computing to create ingenuine products called "hacks". These could be a simple improvement to a website's front-end or replumbing of a more deeper sub-system. This could mean coming up with an new and disruptive outline for a math syllabus or a completely new musical instrument. This could means learning a new skill in a short time or coming up with a million dollar business idea. Hackathons have come to dominate and define the 2nd decade of this millennium and it is only getting started.
The spirit of hackathon is exploration.
There is an almost, oxymoronically synonymous word "unhack". Unhack is a growing theme at hackathons and it tends to mean to refactor or redesign something that was proven to work well. The motivation to redesign/refactor is to do so by keeping longevity, reuse and other good practices in mind.