The New Hackers Dictionary | Page 6

later versions will either completely supersede or
incorporate earlier versions, so there is generally no point in keeping
old versions around.

Our thanks to the coauthors of Steele-1983 for oversight and assistance,
and to the hundreds of Usenetters (too many to name here) who
contributed entries and encouragement. More thanks go to several of
the old-timers on the Usenet group alt.folklore.computers, who
contributed much useful commentary and many corrections and
valuable historical perspective: Joseph M. Newcomer
[53], Bernie Cosell [54],
Earl Boebert [55], and Joe Morris
[56].
We were fortunate enough to have 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: