[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: XSL-List Digest V3 #1074
Gentlemen and Ladies The origin of the word Fubar is geological. Minerals usually end with "ite" e.g. pyrite (fools gold). When a geologist is not too sure what the mineral assemblage in a particular rock is (when it has been heavily weathered and just looks like a heap of ...well earth!) then it is referred to as "fubarite" (F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition). No doubt our bretheren in the more rarified world of computing where a byte is a byte (rather than a Tyranosaurus Rex with bad breath) then adopted it to explain why they kept catching moths in their circuit boards !) cheers Micky Allen <http://www.contaminatedland.co.uk/marx-bro.htm> >From: David_Marston@xxxxxxxxx >Subject: Re: FOO vs FO > >>> Does anyone know why FOO was chosen to mean anything? > >>FOO is from foobar, a military term >>cheers, jim fuller > ><tirade> >No, it's not! If it were, why isn't it spelled "fu"? > >"FOO" is from the Smokey Stover comic strip, where it was used as >an arbitrary word, just as we use it in Computer Science! The >Jargon Dictionary attempts to trace earlier uses, but Smokey >Stover still rules as the place where the modern usage was >introduced. > >FUBAR came later, and from that we derived "bar" as a companion >to foo. In other words, "foo" and "bar" have separate derivations. >Let's kill the urban legend that "FUBAR begat FOO" because that >story is, um, fouled up. ></tirade> XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
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