Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

newline
     
         /n[y]oo'li:n/ {Line feed} or other
        character sequence used to terminate a line of text.
     
        {Unix} uses {line feed} as its text line terminator - a
        {Bell-Labs}-ism rather than a {Berkeley}ism.  Interestingly
        (and unusually for Unix jargon), it is said to have originally
        been an {IBM} usage.  Though the term "newline" appears in
        {ASCII} {standards}, it never caught on in the general
        computing world before {Unix}.  The encoding of line feed as
        "\n" in {C} and {Unix} strings comes from this name.
     
        The term has been used more generally for any {end of line}
        character, character sequence (e.g. {crlf}), or operation
        (like {Pascal}'s writeln procedure or {Lisp 1.5}'s {terpri})
        required to terminate a text record or separate lines.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1997-07-14)