:-oid: [from `android'] suff. 1. Used as in mainstream English to
indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or some otherwise
slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will happily use it with all
sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that wouldn't keep company with
it in mainstream English. For example, "He's a nerdoid" means
that he superficially resembles a nerd but can't make the grade; a
`modemoid' might be a 300-baud box (Real Modems run at 9600 or
up); a `computeroid' might be any {bitty box}. The word
`keyboid' could be used to describe a {chiclet keyboard}, but
would have to be written; spoken, it would confuse the listener as
to the speaker's city of origin. 2. More specifically, an
indicator for `resembling an android' which in the past has been
confined to science-fiction fans and hackers. It too has recently
(in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in the term
`trendoid' for victims of terminal hipness). This is probably
traceable to the popularization of the term {droid} in
"Star Wars" and its sequels.
Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at
least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have
probably been making `-oid' jargon for almost that long
[though GLS and I can personally confirm only that they were
already common in the mid-1970s --- ESR].
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or some otherwise
slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will happily use it with all
sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that wouldn't keep company with
it in mainstream English. For example, "He's a nerdoid" means
that he superficially resembles a nerd but can't make the grade; a
`modemoid' might be a 300-baud box (Real Modems run at 9600 or
up); a `computeroid' might be any {bitty box}. The word
`keyboid' could be used to describe a {chiclet keyboard}, but
would have to be written; spoken, it would confuse the listener as
to the speaker's city of origin. 2. More specifically, an
indicator for `resembling an android' which in the past has been
confined to science-fiction fans and hackers. It too has recently
(in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in the term
`trendoid' for victims of terminal hipness). This is probably
traceable to the popularization of the term {droid} in
"Star Wars" and its sequels.
Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at
least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have
probably been making `-oid' jargon for almost that long
[though GLS and I can personally confirm only that they were
already common in the mid-1970s --- ESR].
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
Related:
- oid suff.
[from Greek suffix -oid = `in the image
of'] 1.
Used as in mainstream slang English to indicate a poor... - foo /foo/
1. interj. Term of disgust. 2. [very
common] Used very generally as a sample name for absolutely
anything,
esp. programs and files (esp. scratch files). 3. First... - bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or
piece of hardware,
esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym... - wedged: adj. 1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without
help.
This is different from having crashed. If the system... - canonical adj.
[very common; historically, `according
to religious law'] The usual or standard state or manner of
something.
This word has a somewhat more technical meaning in... - fan: n. Without qualification, indicates a fan of science
fiction,
especially one who goes to {con}s and tends to hang... - bit-paired keyboard n.,obs.
(alt. `bit-shift
keyboard') A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have
originated with the Teletype ASR-33 and remained common for several
years on early computer equipment.
The ASR-33 was a mechanical device (see EOU), so... - spam vt.,vi.,n.
[from "Monty Python's Flying
Circus"] 1.
To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer... - talk mode n.
A feature supported by Unix, ITS, and some
other OSes that allows two or more logged-in users to set up a
real-time on-line conversation.
It combines the immediacy of talking with all the...
