title: Linguistic meaning of 'let' variable in programming
body: <p>So, I'm a javascript programmer and the new version of <a href="http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/index.html" rel="noreferrer">JavaScript (ES6)</a> has a new keyword for declaring variables: <code>let</code>, next to the old one <code>var</code>. </p>
  
  <p>I know the difference between these two, but I was asking myself: what does <code>let</code> stand for? <code>var</code> obviously is an abbreviation of <em>"<strong>var</strong>iable"</em>, but <code>let</code>? Is it an abbreviation as well? Where does it come from?</p>
  
  <p>I googled this and to my amazement, I couldn't find an answer. I already knew <a href="https://swift.org/" rel="noreferrer">Swift</a> also has a <code>let</code> keyword (they use it for constants), but apparently some other programming languages use it as well.</p>