backreference n.
1. In a regular expression or pattern match, the text which
was matched within grouping parentheses parentheses. 2. The part
of the pattern which refers back to the matched text. 3. By
extension, anything which refers back to something which has been
seen or discussed before. "When you said `she' just now, who were
you backreferencing?"
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backronym n.
[portmanteau of back + acronym] A word interpreted as an
acronym that was not originally so intended. This is a special
case of what linguists call `back formation'. Examples are given
under BASIC, recursive acronym (Cygnus), Acme, and mung.
Discovering backronyms is a common form of wordplay among
hackers. Compare retcon.
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backspace and overstrike interj.
[rare] Whoa! Back up. Used to suggest that someone just said
or did something wrong. Once common among APL programmers; may
now be obsolete.
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backward combatability /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/
n.
[CMU, Tektronix: from `backward compatibility'] A property of
hardware or software revisions in which previous protocols,
formats, layouts, etc. are irrevocably discarded in favor of `new
and improved' protocols, formats, and layouts, leaving the
previous ones not merely deprecated but actively defeated. (Too
often, the old and new versions cannot definitively be
distinguished, such that lingering instances of the previous ones
yield crashes or other infelicitous effects, as opposed to a
simple "version mismatch" message.) A backwards compatible
change, on the other hand, allows old versions to coexist without
crashes or error messages, but too many major changes
incorporating elaborate backwards compatibility processing can
lead to extreme software
bloat. See also flag
day.
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BAD /B-A-D/ adj.
[IBM: acronym, `Broken As Designed'] Said of a program that is
bogus because of bad design and
misfeatures rather than because of bugginess. See working as designed.