Why is there an 'f' command?

[Rouben Rostamian]

On all unix systems I know of, the command 'f' is a synonym for 'finger'.
For instance, on ultrix:
% ls -il `which finger`
  4241 -rwxr-xr-x  2 root        55296 May  2  1989 /usr/ucb/finger
% ls -il `which f`
  4241 -rwxr-xr-x  2 root        55296 May  2  1989 /usr/ucb/f

Note that both 'f' and 'finger' refer to the same file with inode 4241.
The man page does not explain the reason for existence of 'f'.  Any 
ideas?
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