[W/K] :: {Commonwealth Hackish

  Commonwealth Hackish n. Hacker jargon as spoken in English outside the
     U.S., esp. in the British Commonwealth. It is reported that Commonwealth
     speakers are more likely to pronounce truncations like `char' and `soc',
     etc., as spelled (/char/, /sok/), as opposed to American /keir/ and
     /sohsh/. Dots in newsgroup names (especially two-component names) tend
     to be pronounced more often (so soc.wibble is /sok dot wib'l/ rather
     than /sohsh wib'l/).
  
     Preferred metasyntactic variables include blurgle, `eek', `ook',
     `frodo', and `bilbo'; wibble, `wobble', and in emergencies `wubble';
     `flob', `banana', `tom', `dick', `harry', `wombat', `frog', fish,
     womble and so on and on (see foo, sense 4). Alternatives to verb
     doubling include suffixes `-o-rama', `frenzy' (as in feeding frenzy),
     and `city' (examples: "barf city!" "hack-o-rama!" "core dump frenzy!").
  
     All the generic differences within the anglophone world inevitably
     show themselves in the associated hackish dialects. The Greek letters
     beta and zeta are usually pronounced /bee't*/ and /zee't*/; meta may
     also be pronounced /mee't*/. Various punctuators (and even letters - Z
     is called `zed', not `zee') are named differently: most crucially, for
     hackish, where Americans use `parens', `brackets' and `braces' for (),
     [] and {, Commonwealth English uses `brackets', `square brackets' and
     `curly brackets', though `parentheses' may be used for the first; the
     exclamation mark, `!', is called pling rather than bang and the pound
     sign, `#', is called hash; furthermore, the term `the pound sign' is
     understood to mean the pound currency symbol (of course).
  
     See also attoparsec, calculator, chemist, console jockey,
     fish, go-faster stripes, grunge, hakspek, heavy metal, leaky
     heap, lord high fixer, loose bytes, muddie, nadger, noddy,
     psychedelicware, raster blaster, RTBM, seggie, spod, sun
     lounge, terminal junkie, tick-list features, weeble, weasel,
     YABA, and notes or definitions under Bad Thing, barf, bogus,
     bum, chase pointers, cosmic rays, crippleware, crunch,
     dodgy, gonk, hamster, hardwarily, mess-dos, nybble,
     proglet, root, SEX, tweak, womble, and xyzzy.
  
  

  Commonwealth Hackish
       
          Hacker jargon as spoken outside the US, especially in the
          British Commonwealth.  It is reported that Commonwealth
          speakers are more likely to pronounce truncations like "char"
          and "soc", etc., as spelled (/char/, /sok/), as opposed to
          American /keir/ and /sohsh/.  Dots in newsgroup names
          (especially two-component names) tend to be pronounced more
          often (so soc.wibble is /sok dot wib'l/ rather than /sohsh
          wib'l/).  The prefix meta may be pronounced /mee't*/;
          similarly, Greek letter beta is usually /bee't*/, zeta is
          usually /zee't*/, and so forth.  Preferred metasyntactic
          variables include blurgle, "eek", "ook", "frodo", and
          "bilbo"; "wibble", "wobble", and in emergencies "wubble";
          "banana", "tom", "dick", "harry", "wombat", "frog", fish,
          and so on and on (see foo).
       
          Alternatives to verb doubling include suffixes "-o-rama",
          "frenzy" (as in feeding frenzy), and "city" (examples: "barf
          city!"  "hack-o-rama!"  "core dump frenzy!").  Finally, note
          that the American terms "parens", "brackets", and "braces" for
          (), [], and { are uncommon; Commonwealth hackish prefers
          "brackets", "square brackets", and "curly brackets".  Also,
          the use of "pling" for bang is common outside the United
          States.
       
          See also attoparsec, calculator, chemist, console
          jockey, fish, go-faster stripes, grunge, hakspek,
          heavy metal, leaky heap, lord high fixer, loose bytes,
          muddie, nadger, noddy, psychedelicware, plingnet,
          raster blaster, RTBM, seggie, spod, sun lounge,
          terminal junkie, tick-list features, weeble, weasel,
          YABA, and notes or definitions under Bad Thing, barf,
          bum, chase pointers, cosmic rays, crippleware,
          crunch, dodgy, gonk, hamster, hardwarily,
          mess-dos, nibble, proglet, root, SEX, tweak, and
          xyzzy.
       
          [{Jargon File]
       
          (1995-01-18)