the aid of some accomplished linguists. David Stampe [57]
and Charles Hoequist [58] contributed valuable criticism; Joe Keane [59] helped us improve the pronunciation guides.
A few bits of this text quote previous works. We are indebted to Brian A. LaMacchia [60] for obtaining permission for us to use material from the "TMRC Dictionary"; also, Don Libes [61] contributed some appropriate material from his excellent book "Life With UNIX". We thank Per Lindberg [62], author of the remarkable Swedish-language 'zine "Hackerbladet", for bringing "FOO!" comics to our attention and smuggling one of the IBM hacker underground's own baby jargon files out to us. Thanks also to Maarten Litmaath for generously allowing the inclusion of the ASCII pronunciation guide he formerly maintained. And our gratitude to Marc Weiser of XEROX PARC [63] for securing us permission to quote from PARC's own jargon lexicon and shipping us a copy.
It is a particular pleasure to acknowledge the major contributions of Mark Brader [64] and Steve Summit [65] to the File and Dictionary; they have read and reread many drafts, checked facts, caught typos, submitted an amazing number of thoughtful comments, and done yeoman service in catching typos and minor usage bobbles. Their rare combination of enthusiasm, persistence, wide-ranging technical knowledge, and precisionism in matters of language has been of invaluable help. Indeed, the sustained volume and quality of Mr. Brader's input over several years and several different editions has only allowed him to escape co-editor credit by the slimmest of margins.
Finally, George V. Reilly [66] helped with TeX arcana and painstakingly proofread some 2.7 and 2.8 versions, and Eric Tiedemann [67] contributed sage advice throughout on rhetoric, amphigory, and philosophunculism.
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Node:Jargon Construction, Next:[68]Hacker Writing Style, Previous:[69]Revision History, Up:[70]Top
How Jargon Works
Jargon Construction
There are some standard methods of jargonification that became established quite early (i.e., before 1970), spreading from such sources as the Tech Model Railroad Club, the PDP-1 SPACEWAR hackers, and John McCarthy's original crew of LISPers. These include verb doubling, soundalike slang, the `-P' convention, overgeneralization, spoken inarticulations, and anthropomorphization. Each is discussed below. We also cover the standard comparatives for design quality.
Of these six, verb doubling, overgeneralization, anthropomorphization, and (especially) spoken inarticulations have become quite general; but soundalike slang is still largely confined to MIT and other large universities, and the `-P' convention is found only where LISPers flourish.
* [71]Verb Doubling: Doubling a verb may change its semantics
* [72]Soundalike Slang: Punning jargon
* [73]The -P convention: A LISPy way to form questions
* [74]Overgeneralization: Standard abuses of grammar
* [75]Spoken Inarticulations: Sighing and <*sigh*>ing
* [76]Anthropomorphization: Homunculi, daemons, and confused programs
* [77]Comparatives: Standard comparatives for design quality
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Node:Verb Doubling, Next:[78]Soundalike Slang, Up:[79]Jargon Construction
Verb Doubling
A standard construction in English is to double a verb and use it as an exclamation, such as "Bang, bang!" or "Quack, quack!". Most of these are names for noises. Hackers also double verbs as a concise, sometimes sarcastic comment on what the implied subject does. Also, a doubled verb is often used to terminate a conversation, in the process remarking on the current state of affairs or what the speaker intends to do next. Typical examples involve [80]win, [81]lose, [82]hack, [83]flame, [84]barf, [85]chomp:
"The disk heads just crashed." "Lose, lose." "Mostly he talked about his latest crock. Flame, flame." "Boy, what a bagbiter! Chomp, chomp!"
Some verb-doubled constructions have special meanings not immediately obvious from the verb. These have their own listings in the lexicon.
The [86]Usenet culture has one tripling convention unrelated to this; the names of `joke' topic groups often have a tripled last element. The first and paradigmatic example was alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork (a "Muppet Show" reference); other infamous examples have included:
alt.french.captain.borg.borg.borg alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die comp.unix.internals.system.calls.brk.brk.brk sci.physics.edward.teller.boom.boom.boom alt.sadistic.dentists.drill.drill.drill
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Node:Soundalike Slang, Next:[87]The -P convention, Previous:[88]Verb Doubling, Up:[89]Jargon Construction
Soundalike slang
Hackers will often make rhymes or puns in order to convert an ordinary word or phrase into something more interesting. It is considered particularly [90]flavorful if the phrase is bent so as to include some other jargon word; thus the computer hobbyist magazine "Dr. Dobb's Journal" is almost always referred to among hackers as `Dr. Frob's Journal' or simply `Dr. Frob's'. Terms of this kind that have been in fairly wide use include names for newspapers: Boston Herald => Horrid (or Harried) Boston Globe => Boston Glob Houston (or San Francisco) Chronicle => the Crocknicle (or the Comical) New York Times => New York Slime Wall Street Journal => Wall Street Urinal
However, terms like these are often made up on the spur of the moment. Standard examples include: Data General => Dirty Genitals IBM 360 => IBM Three-Sickly Government Property --- Do Not Duplicate (on keys) => Government Duplicity --- Do Not Propagate for historical reasons => for hysterical raisins Margaret Jacks Hall (the CS building at Stanford) => Marginal Hacks Hall Microsoft => Microsloth Internet Explorer => Internet Exploiter
This is not really similar to the Cockney rhyming slang it has been compared 
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