Why are solderless protoboards called "breadboards"?  I've used the term for decades but couldn't answer a student's question about the name.
This terminology goes waaaaay back to the days of vacuum tubes.
Generally, you would mount a number of tube-sockets on standoffs to a piece of wood (the actual "breadboard"), and do all the wiring with point-point wire and the components just hanging between the various devices.
If you needed additional connection points, you would use a solder-lug terminal strip.


Image credit: Random googling.

The story goes that an engineer had an idea for a vacuum tube device late one night. Looking around the house, the only base for his prototype that he found was indeed his wife's breadboard, from the breadbox.  

Now, I'm not endorsing actually using a real breadboard. It's your marital strife if you do.



I've actually constructed a tube project using the breadboard technique. It works very well.
