A standard construction in English is to double a verb and use
it as an exclamation, such as "Bang, bang!" or "Quack, quack!".
Most of these are names for noises. Hackers also double verbs as
a concise, sometimes sarcastic comment on what the implied
subject does. Also, a doubled verb is often used to terminate a
conversation, in the process remarking on the current state of
affairs or what the speaker intends to do next. Typical examples
involve win, lose, hack, flame, barf,
chomp:
"The disk heads just crashed." "Lose, lose."
"Mostly he talked about his latest crock. Flame, flame."
"Boy, what a bagbiter! Chomp, chomp!"
Some verb-doubled constructions have special meanings not
immediately obvious from the verb. These have their own listings
in the lexicon.
The Usenet culture has one
tripling convention unrelated to this; the names of
`joke' topic groups often have a tripled last element. The first
and paradigmatic example was
_alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork_ (a "Muppet Show"
reference); other infamous examples have included:
_alt.french.captain.borg.borg.borg_
_alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die_
_comp.unix.internals.system.calls.brk.brk.brk_
_sci.physics.edward.teller.boom.boom.boom_
_alt.sadistic.dentists.drill.drill.drill_
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Doubling, Up:Jargon
Construction