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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@lotus.com
>Subject: Re: [xsl] 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>


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