Linguists usually refer to informal language as `slang' and
reserve the term `jargon' for the technical vocabularies of
various occupations. However, the ancestor of this collection was
called the `Jargon File', and hacker slang is traditionally `the
jargon'. When talking about the jargon there is therefore no
convenient way to distinguish it from what a linguist
would call hackers' jargon -- the formal vocabulary they learn
from textbooks, technical papers, and manuals.
To make a confused situation worse, the line between hacker
slang and the vocabulary of technical programming and computer
science is fuzzy, and shifts over time. Further, this vocabulary
is shared with a wider technical culture of programmers, many of
whom are not hackers and do not speak or recognize hackish
slang.
Accordingly, this lexicon will try to be as precise as the
facts of usage permit about the distinctions among three
categories:
`slang': informal language from mainstream English or
non-technical subcultures (bikers, rock fans, surfers, etc).
`jargon': without qualifier, denotes informal `slangy'
language peculiar to or predominantly found among hackers -- the
subject of this lexicon.
`techspeak': the formal technical vocabulary of programming,
computer science, electronics, and other fields connected to
hacking.
This terminology will be consistently used throughout the
remainder of this lexicon.
The jargon/techspeak distinction is the delicate one. A lot of
techspeak originated as jargon, and there is a steady continuing
uptake of jargon into techspeak. On the other hand, a lot of
jargon arises from overgeneralization of techspeak terms (there
is more about this in the Jargon Construction section
below).
In general, we have considered techspeak any term that
communicates primarily by a denotation well established in
textbooks, technical dictionaries, or standards documents.
A few obviously techspeak terms (names of operating systems,
languages, or documents) are listed when they are tied to hacker
folklore that isn't covered in formal sources, or sometimes to
convey critical historical background necessary to understand
other entries to which they are cross-referenced. Some other
techspeak senses of jargon words are listed in order to make the
jargon senses clear; where the text does not specify that a
straight technical sense is under discussion, these are marked
with `[techspeak]' as an etymology. Some entries have a primary
sense marked this way, with subsequent jargon meanings explained
in terms of it.
We have also tried to indicate (where known) the apparent
origins of terms. The results are probably the least reliable
information in the lexicon, for several reasons. For one thing,
it is well known that many hackish usages have been independently
reinvented multiple times, even among the more obscure and
intricate neologisms. It often seems that the generative
processes underlying hackish jargon formation have an internal
logic so powerful as to create substantial parallelism across
separate cultures and even in different languages! For another,
the networks tend to propagate innovations so quickly that `first
use' is often impossible to pin down. And, finally, compendia
like this one alter what they observe by implicitly stamping
cultural approval on terms and widening their use.
Despite these problems, the organized collection of
jargon-related oral history for the new compilations has enabled
us to put to rest quite a number of folk etymologies, place
credit where credit is due, and illuminate the early history of
many important hackerisms such as kluge, cruft, and
foo. We believe specialist
lexicographers will find many of the historical notes more than
casually instructive.
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