Difference between revisions of "Foo"
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In the [[NetHack]] community, people may refer to [[foocubus|''foo''cubus]] to represent a ''suc''cubus or ''in''cubus, or [[footrice|''foo''trice]] to refer to a ''chicka''trice or ''cocka''trice. To [[fooproof|''foo''proof]] an object is to make it ''rust''proof, ''fire''proof or ''corrode''proof, depending on the object, but a better word to use in this case is ''[[fixed]]''. | In the [[NetHack]] community, people may refer to [[foocubus|''foo''cubus]] to represent a ''suc''cubus or ''in''cubus, or [[footrice|''foo''trice]] to refer to a ''chicka''trice or ''cocka''trice. To [[fooproof|''foo''proof]] an object is to make it ''rust''proof, ''fire''proof or ''corrode''proof, depending on the object, but a better word to use in this case is ''[[fixed]]''. | ||
| − | The word ''foo'' is used widely in the hacker (and NetHack-er) community, but it can be traced back to World War II and earlier. Its precise origin is not clear; [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3092 RFC 3092] lists several plausible etymologies of the word. | + | The word ''foo'' is used widely in the [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/foo.html hacker] (and NetHack-er) community, but it can be traced back to World War II and earlier. Its precise origin is not clear; [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3092 RFC 3092] lists several plausible etymologies of the word. |
NetHack players generally do not use ''bar'', ''baz'', and the rest of the common metasyntactic variables. | NetHack players generally do not use ''bar'', ''baz'', and the rest of the common metasyntactic variables. | ||
Revision as of 12:20, 22 February 2011
foo is a metasyntactic variable: a word that does not mean anything by itself but is used to represent other, unspecified words.
In the NetHack community, people may refer to foocubus to represent a succubus or incubus, or footrice to refer to a chickatrice or cockatrice. To fooproof an object is to make it rustproof, fireproof or corrodeproof, depending on the object, but a better word to use in this case is fixed.
The word foo is used widely in the hacker (and NetHack-er) community, but it can be traced back to World War II and earlier. Its precise origin is not clear; RFC 3092 lists several plausible etymologies of the word.
NetHack players generally do not use bar, baz, and the rest of the common metasyntactic variables.
