Hacker has switched around a few times. In the Comp-Sci/academic/programmer world the semi-original use of 'hacker' was in reference to the pranksters at MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club and the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, then for those that hacked into computer systems not just at MIT, leading to the thief-like image down the road. HN's name is out of the MIT prankster heritage of those people that can 'hack' something together or find novel pathways in systems (not just computers).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacks_at_the_Massachusetts_Ins...

http://hacks.mit.edu/