by ========= THIS IS THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.1.5 28 NOV 1990 =================
INTRODUCTION
This `jargon file' is a collection of slang terms used by various
subcultures of computer hackers.
The original `jargon file' was a collection of hacker slang from
technical cultures including 1) the MIT AI Lab, 2) the Stanford
AI lab, 3) the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, 3) Carnegie-
Mellon University, 4) Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Some entries
dated back to the early 1970s. This version was published as _The_
Hacker's_Dictionary_ in 1983.
This new version casts a wider net than the old jargon file;
its aim is to cover not just AI but all the technical computing
cultures wherein the true hacker-nature is manifested. More than
half of the entries now derive from USENET and the C and UNIX
communities.
The present maintainers of the jargon file are Guy L. Steele
(g...@think.com) and Eric S. Raymond (e...@snark.thyrsus.com). Send
all additions, corrections and correspondence relating to the
jargon file to jar...@think.com.
CREDITS
The original jargon file was compiled by Guy L. Steele Jr., Raphael
Finkel, Don Woods, and Mark Crispin, with assistance from the MIT and
Stanford AI communities and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Some contributions were submitted via the ARPAnet from miscellaneous
sites. The `old' jargon file was last revised in 1983; its revisions
are all un-numbered and may be collectively considered `Version 1'.
Version 2.1: the jargon file reorganization and massive additions
were by Eric S. Raymond, approved by Guy Steele. Many items of UNIX,
C, USENET and microcomputer-based slang were added at that time (as
well as Appendix A, The Untimely Demise of Mabel The Monkey). Some
obsolescent usages (mostly PDP-10 derived) were moved to appendix B.
The bibliography (Appendix C) was also consed on.
Our thanks to all the USENETters who contributed entries and
encouragement. Special thanks to our Scandinavian correspondent Per
Lindberg (p...@front.se), author of the remarkable Swedish language
'zine _Hackerbladet_, for bring FOO! comics to our attention and
smuggling the IBM hacker underground's own baby jargon file out to
us. Also, much gratitude to ace hacker/linguist Joe Keane
(j...@osc.osc.com) for helping us improve the pronunciation guides; and
to Maarten Litmath for generously allowing the inclusion of the
ASCII prononunciation guide he maintains.
FORMAT FOR NEW ENTRIES
Try to conform to the format already being used -- 70 character
lines, 3-character indentations, pronunciations in parentheses,
etymologies in brackets, single-space after def'n numbers and word
classes, etc. Stick to the standard ASCII character set.
We are looking to expand the file's range of technical specialties
covered. There are doubtless rich veins of jargon yet untapped in the
scientific computing, graphics, and networking hacker communities;
also in numerical analysis, computer architectures and VLSI design,
language design, and many other related fields. Send us your slang!
We are *not* interested in straight technical terms explained by
textbooks or technical dictionaries unless an entry illuminates
``underground'' meanings or aspects not covered by official histories.
We are also not interested in ``joke'' entries -- there is a lot of
humor in the file but it must flow naturally out of the explanations
of what hackers do and how they think.
It is OK to submit items of slang you have originated if they
have spread to the point of being used by people who are not
personally acquainted with you. We prefer items to be attested by
independent submission from two different sites.
The slang file will be regularly maintained and re-posted from
now on and will include a version number. Read it, pass it around,
contribute -- this is *your* monument!
NOTES ON JARGON CONSTRUCTION
There are some standard methods of jargonification which became
established quite early (i.e before 1970), spreading from such sources
as the MIT Model Railroad Club, the PDP-1 SPACEWAR hackers and John
McCarthy's original crew of LISPers. These include:
Verb doubling: a standard construction is to double a verb and use it
as a comment on what the implied subject does. Often used to
terminate a conversation. Typical examples involve WIN, LOSE,
HACK, FLAME, BARF, CHOMP:
``The disk heads just crashed.'' ``Lose, lose.''
``Mostly he just talked about his @#!!$% crock. Flame, flame.''
``Boy, what a bagbiter! Chomp, chomp!''
Soundalike slang: similar to Cockney rhyming slang. Often made up on
the spur of the moment. Standard examples:
Boston Globe => Boston Glob
Herald American => Horrid (Harried) American
New York Times => New York Slime
Prime Time => Slime Time
government property - do not duplicate (seen on keys)
=> government duplicity - do not propagate
Often the substitution will be made in such a way as to slip in
a standard jargon word:
Dr. Dobb's Journal => Dr. Frob's Journal
Margaret Jacks Hall => Marginal Hacks Hall
Data General => Dirty Genitals
The -P convention: turning a word into a question by appending the
syllable ``P''; from the LISP convention of appending the letter ``P''
to denote a predicate (a Boolean-valued function). The question
should expect a yes/no answer, though it needn't. (See T and NIL.)
At dinnertime: ``Foodp?'' ``Yeah, I'm pretty hungry.'' or ``T!''
``State-of-the-world-P?'' (Straight) ``I'm about to go home.''
(Humorous) ``Yes, the world has a state.''
[One of the best of these is a Gosperism (i.e., due to Bill
Gosper). When we were at a Chinese restaurant, he wanted to know
whether someone would like to share with him a two-person-sized
bowl of soup. His inquiry was: ``Split-p soup?'' --GLS]
Peculiar nouns: MIT AI hackers love to take various words and add the
wrong endings to them to make nouns and verbs, often by extending a
standard rule to nonuniform cases. Examples:
porous => porosity
generous => generosity
Ergo: mysterious => mysteriosity
ferrous => ferrocity
Other examples: winnitude, disgustitude, hackification.
Also, note that all nouns can be verbed. eg: ``All nouns can be
verbed'', ``I'll mouse it up'', ``Hang on while I clipboard it over'',
``I'm grepping the files''. English as a whole is already heading in
this direction (towards pure-positional grammar like Chinese);
hackers are simply a bit ahead of the curve.
Spoken inarticulations: Words such as ``mumble'', ``sigh'', and ``groan''
are spoken in places where their referent might more naturally be
used. It has been suggested that this usage derives from the
impossibility of representing such noises in a com link. Another
expression sometimes heard is ``complain!'', meaning ``I have a
complaint!''
Hacker speech style: Features extremely precise diction, careful
word choice, a relatively large working vocabulary, and relatively
little use of contractions or ``street slang''. Dry humor, irony,
puns, and a mildly flippant attitude are highly valued -- but an
underlying seriousness and intelligence is essential. One should
use just enough jargon to communicate precisely and identify
oneself as ``in the culture''; overuse and a breathless, excessively
gung-ho attitude are considered tacky and the mark of a loser.
This speech style (a variety of the precisionist English normally
spoken by scientists, design engineers, and academics in technical
fields) is fairly constant everywhere. Of the five listed
constructions, verb doubling, peculiar noun formations, and
(especially!) spoken inarticulations have become quite general; but
rhyming slang is still largely confined to MIT and other large
universities, and the P convention is found only where LISPers
flourish.
One final note. Many words in hacker jargon have to be understood as
members of sets of comparatives. This is especially true of the adjectives
and nouns used to describe the beauty and functional quality of code. Here
is an approximately correct spectrum:
MONSTROSITY BRAIN-DAMAGE BUG SCREW LOSE MISFEATURE
CROCK KLUGE HACK WIN FEATURE ELEGANCE PERFECTION
The last is never actually attained.
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
Pronunciation keys are provided in the jargon listing for all
entries which are neither dictionary words pronounced as in standard
English nor obvious compounds of same. These guides use the following
simple system:
1) Syllables are hyphen-separated, except that an apostrophe
or back-apostrophe follows each accented syllable (the
back apostrophe marks a secondary accent in some words of
four or more syllables).
2) Consonants are pronounced as in American English. The letter
``g'' is always hard (as in ``got'' rather than ``giant'');
``ch'' is soft ("church'' rather than ``chemist"). The letter
``j'' is the sound that occurs twice in ``judge''. The letter
``s'' is always as in ``pass'', never a z sound (but it is
sometimes doubled at the end of syllables to emphasize this).
The digraph `dh' is the th of `these clothes', not of `thick'.
3) Vowels are represented as follows:
a back, that
ah father, palm
ar far, mark
aw flaw, caught
ay bake, rain
e less, men
ee easy, ski
eir their, software
i trip, hit
ie life, sky
o cot, top
oh flow, sew
oo loot, through
or more, door
ow out, how
oy boy, coin
uh but, some
u put, foot
y yet
yoo few
[y]oo oo with optional fronting as in `news' (noos or nyoos)
An at-sign is used for the ``schwa'' sound of unstressed or occluded
vowels (the one that is often written with an upside-down ``e"). The
schwa vowel is omitted in syllables containing vocalic r, l, m or n;
that is, ``kitten'' and ``color'' would be rendered ``kit'n'' and
``kul'r''.
UNIX CONVENTIONS
References such as `malloc(3)' and `patch(1)' are to UNIX
facilities (some of
...
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