Bipolar Junction Transistors, Amplifiers and Logic Gates
Noel M. Morris · Semiconductor Devices · 1976
The name ‘transistor’ is a contraction of TRANSfer resISTOR, and the bipolar junction transistor was the earliest type of semiconducting amplifying device to come into use. The term ‘bipolar’ is coined from the fact that both polarities of charge carrier (that is, holes and electrons) play a part in the operation of the transistor.