The term is
derived from
steel-manufacturing in which steel was molded into large
plates for use in steam boilers. The
implication is that either the
boilerplate was
strong as
steel and
tested or, more likely, that it was something built to be
used over and over. In
legal documents,
safety warnings,
mission statements,
installation guides,
copyright statements, and
responsibility disclaimers a boilerplates are used very commonly like
templates that are sort of "
fill-in-the-blank". In
programming, boilerplates are pieces of
re-usable code.
In the 1890's
newspapers used them for
printing and until the 1950's were used to send out
press releases so they had to be
printed as
written.
thanks to:
http://www.whatis.com