TITLE: Why are connective spectra called "connective"?
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Recall that a spectrum is called connective if it is $(-1)$-connected (that is, its homotopy is concentrated in nonnegative degrees).
However, this left me scratching my head a bit.  Why "connective"?  Is there some geometric intuition behind it that I'm missing?

REPLY [9 votes]: Maybe just because (-1)-connected is a mouthful? And connected would not be the right term, since that would imply trivial $\pi_0$. Other than that, I don't know.