From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 January 2023):
Make
<programming, tool> The Unix tool to automate the
recompilation, linking etc. of programs, taking account of the
interdependencies of modules and their modification times.
Make reads instructions from a "makefile" which specifies a
set of targets to be built, the files they depend on and the
commands to execute in order to produce them.
Most C systems come with a make. There is also one produce
by GNU.
["Make - A Program for Maintaining Computer Programs",
A.I. Feldman, TR No 57, Bell Labs Apr 1977].
(1995-01-05)