Source : WordNet®

byte
     n : a sequence of 8 bits (enough to represent one character of
         alphanumeric data) processed as a single unit of
         information

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Byte
     
         A popular computing magazine.
     
        {Home (http://www.byte.com)}.
     
        (1997-03-27)

byte
     
         /bi:t/ (B) A component in the machine {data hierarchy}
        usually larger than a {bit} and smaller than a {word}; now
        most often eight bits and the smallest addressable unit of
        storage.  A byte typically holds one {character}.
     
        A byte may be 9 bits on 36-bit computers.  Some older
        architectures used "byte" for quantities of 6 or 7 bits, and
        the PDP-10 and IBM 7030 supported "bytes" that were actually
        {bit-fields} of 1 to 36 (or 64) bits!  These usages are now
        obsolete, and even 9-bit bytes have become rare in the general
        trend toward power-of-2 word sizes.
     
        The term was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956 during the
        early design phase for the {IBM} {Stretch} computer.  It was a
        mutation of the word "bite" intended to avoid confusion with
        "bit".  In 1962 he described it as "a group of bits used to
        encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in
        parallel to and from input-output units".  The move to an
        8-bit byte happened in late 1956, and this size was later
        adopted and promulgated as a standard by the {System/360}
        {operating system} (announced April 1964).
     
        James S. Jones  adds:
     
        I am sure I read in a mid-1970's brochure by IBM that outlined
        the history of computers that BYTE was an acronym that stood
        for "Bit asYnchronous Transmission E__?__" which related to
        width of the bus between the Stretch CPU and its CRT-memory
        (prior to Core).
     
        Terry Carr  says:
     
        In the early days IBM taught that a series of bits transferred
        together (like so many yoked oxen) formed a Binary Yoked
        Transfer Element (BYTE).
     
        [True origin?  First 8-bit byte architecture?]
     
        See also {nibble}, {octet}.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (2003-09-21)