splat n.
1. Name used in many places (DEC, IBM, and others) for the
asterisk (*) character (ASCII 0101010). This may
derive from the `squashed-bug' appearance of the asterisk on many
early line printers. 2. [MIT] Name used by some people for the
# character (ASCII 0100011). 3. The feature key on a Mac (same as alt, sense 2). 4. obs. Name used by some
people for the Stanford/ITS extended ASCII circle-x character.
This character is also called `blobby' and `frob', among other
names; it is sometimes used by mathematicians as a notation for
`tensor product'. 5. obs. Name for the semi-mythical Stanford
extended ASCII circle-plus character. See also ASCII.
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splat out v.
[Usenet] To partially obscure a potentially provocative word
by substituting splat characters for
some of its letters (usually, but not always, the vowels). The
purpose is not to make the word unrecognizable but to make it a
mention rather than a use, so that no flamewar ensues. Words
often splatted out include N*z* (see Godwin's Law), *v*l*t**n (anywhere
fundamentalists might be lurking), *b*rt**n, and g*n c*ntr*l.
Compare UN*X.