[Tfug] OT: Hacker Slang

[Eduardo Bernal]

Yeah, I always called it "E-T-C" until I took a class and heard the old
sysadmin teaching the course say "et-c" (and where I learned that /etc
stands for "enviroment tables and controls" and the /usr stands for
"unix system resources"). I've never heard it called "f-stab", only
"f-s-tab". So now when I upgrade my hard disk I can f-stab myself in the
back.


Jeremy Rogers wrote:
> 
> This reminds me alot of jargon I've apparently been pronouncing
> wrong or at least differently all my life.  I've always
> pronounced kludge and others that are "sorta" real words
> correctly.  Some, I just had plain wrong like tex and latex (yep, its not rubber). But it seems like there are huge variations in things
> like: (caps means say the letter name)
> 
> /etc -- is it "et-see" or "E-T-C" or "etcetera"
> fstab -- is it "F-stab" or "F-S-tab"
> vi -- "vie" or "V-I"  (please don't flame -- I've read the official stuff)
> 
> lots of others I can't think of now, but the point is, as geeks, I think many of us learn slang and jargon by seeing it written instead of hearing it verbally.  This leaves much ambiguity in pronunciation.  I even think much pronunciation is very regionalized since those times we do get to hear something spoken, its with poeple from our neck of the woods.  (I know many things are said differently here than at MichTech, I just can't remember what it was I heard at the last meeting I attended that caught my ear.)
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