Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
FORTRAN was one of the earliest high-level procedural programming languages, developed by IBM in the 1950s specifically for scientific, engineering, and numerical computations.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
FORTRAN is an acronym derived directly from FORmula TRANslation.
It was designed by John Backus and his team at IBM in 1957 to facilitate the direct translation of mathematical and scientific formulas into machine-executable instructions.
Step 3: Final Answer:
Hence, FORTRAN stands for Formula translation, matching option (B).