A metasyntactic variable is a placeholder name, or an alias term, commonly used to denote the subject matter under discussion, or an arbitrary member of a class of things under discussion. The term originates from computer programming and other technical contexts, and is commonly used in examples by hackers and programmers. The use of a metasyntactic variable is helpful in freeing a programmer from creating a logically named variable, although the invented term may also become sufficiently popular and enter the language as a neologism. The word foo is the canonical example. Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context which it is being discussed. ... Look up Alias in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The term alias may refer to— an assumed name, or pseudonym. ... “Programming” redirects here. ... This article is about computer hacking. ... A programmer or software developer is someone who programs computers, that is, one who writes computer software. ... A neologism (Greek νεολογισμός [neologismos], from νέος [neos] new + λόγος [logos] word, speech, discourse + suffix -ισμός [-ismos] -ism) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ... Foo is a metasyntactic variable used heavily in computer science to represent concepts abstractly and can be used to represent any part of a complicated system or idea including the data, variables, functions, and commands just to name a few. ... Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. ...

A metasyntactic variable (IPA pronunciation: [ˈmɛ.tə.sɪn.ˌtæk.tɪk ˈvɛ.ɹi.ə.bl]) is a placeholder name used in syntax or algorithm specifications to show the places where content can vary. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context which it is being discussed. ...

The same concept is employed in other fields where it is expressed by terms such as schematic variable (see logical form). The form or logical form of an argument is the representation of its sentences using the formal grammar and symbolism of a logical system to display its similarity with all other arguments of the same type. ...

However, it has been plausibly suggested that the real reason for the term metasyntactic variable is that it sounds cool: the term is an example of computer jargon. Look up cool in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... (arcane computer acronym, terminology or technology) (Computer jargon must be distinguished from hacker slang, which is the language of a certain subculture of people involved with computers. ...

Examples

Nonsense words

Foo, Bar and Baz

Foo is the canonical metasyntactic variable, commonly used to represent an as-yet-unspecified term, value, process, function, destination or event but seldom a person (see Ned Baker, below). It is sometimes combined with bar to make foobar. This suggests that foo may have originated with the World War II slang term fubar, as an acronym for fouled/fucked up beyond all recognition/repair, although the Jargon File makes a reasonably good case [1] that foo predates fubar. Foo was also used as a nonsense word in the surrealistic comic strip Smokey Stover that was popular in the 1940s and 1950s. See also Foo fighter for more foo etymology, as well as RFC 3092. The popularity of "foo" and its derivatives with computer programmers and hackers was likely increased by its appearance in the classic 1976 Colossal Cave Adventure, found on almost every mainframe and mini-computer through the 1970s and 80's, where the graffiti "fee fie foe foo [sic]" is seen in the Giants' Cave. See xyzzy below for another example of the game's influence. Foo is a metasyntactic variable used heavily in computer science to represent concepts abstractly and can be used to represent any part of a complicated system or idea including the data, variables, functions, and commands just to name a few. ... Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speakers dialect or language. ... For other uses, see FUBAR (disambiguation). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Backronym and Apronym (Discuss) Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations, such as NATO, laser, and ABC, written as the initial letter or letters of words, and pronounced on the basis of this abbreviated written form. ... The Jargon File is a glossary of hacker slang. ... Nonsense is an utterance or written text in what appears to be a human language or other symbolic system, that does not in fact carry any identifiable meaning. ... Max Ernst. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Smokey Stover was a comic strip written and drawn by Bill Holman from March 10, 1935 until he retired in 1973. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... the first thing that was invented was the automatic DILDO. Education grew explosively because of a very strong demand for high school and college education. ... This article is about the aerial phenomenon. ... Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure) (Crowther & Woods, 1976) was the first computer adventure game. ...

"Foo" can now also just be short for "fool", though its usage as an IT variable predates the AAVE "foo" becoming mainstream. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Bar, the canonical second metasyntactic variable, typically follows foo. Bar is a metasyntactic variable used heavily in computer science to represent concepts abstractly and can be used to represent any part of a complicated system or idea including the data, variables, functions, and commands just to name a few. ...

Baz, the canonical third metasyntactic variable, is commonly used after foo and bar. It is also a common Arabic surname, and appears (occasionally in the United Kingdom, more frequently in Australia) as a short form of the forename Barry. Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... The single word Barry may refer to: Barry (name) Barry (dog), a famous St. ...

Goo has been known to take the place of Baz in some circles.

Foo, bar, and baz are often compounded together to make such words as foobar, barbaz, and foobaz.

Gazonk

Gazonk is often used as an alternative for baz or as a third metasyntactic variable. Some early versions of the popular editor Emacs used gazonk.foo as a default filename. This article is about the text editor. ...

bop

bop is often used as a fourth metasyntactic variable. It has the benefit of being short and easy to remember.

Quux

Quux, introduced by Guy L. Steele, Jr., is the canonical fourth metasyntactic variable, commonly used after baz. However, more recently Qux has become more common as the fourth variable, displacing Quux as the fifth. A probable reason for this is that Quux is often followed by the series Quuux, Quuuux, Quuuuux etc. and Qux fits this pattern perfectly. Guy Lewis Steele, Jr. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

In amateur radio, "QUX" means "What is the magnetic course to you?". Amateur radio station with modern solid-state transceiver featuring LCD display and DSP capabilities Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is a hobby that uses various types of radio broadcasting equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training. ...

RFC 3092

RFC 3092, published on April Fools' Day of 2001, lists the "standard list of metasyntactic variables" as follows: foo, bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred, plugh, xyzzy, thud. April Fools Day and April Fools Day redirect here. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

English words

Normal Words

English contains standard words that obviate the need to invent cute metasyntactic variables: For a thing: whatever, for a place: wherever, for a person: whoever. That the people tend to forget that these exist (until reminded) may be a phenomenon of human memory; Being generic, they lack specific associations that might bring them to mind. This could possibly be verified by actual research.

Needle and Haystack

Needle and haystack are commonly used in computer programming to describe the syntax of functions that involve a search parameter and a search target, such as searching a substring within a string; with these two words, derived from the idiom "to find a needle in a haystack", it is clearer where the substring for which to search for goes, and where the string to search in goes. This can be seen, for instance, in the documentation for some functions in the computer language PHP, see [2] for an example. “Programming” redirects here. ... An idiom is an expression (i. ... For other uses, see PHP (disambiguation). ...

XPTO

XPTO is a very common variable name in Portuguese-speaking countries. Its origin, obscure to most by now, is from an old riddle about a sign with directions on how to cross a river (the answer to the riddle is that the X is to be read as the roman numeral 'ten', and the O as 'nothing', so that the sign reads 'despe-te e nada' - 'get naked and swim'). The expression XPTO is an old abbreviation of the word Χριστός, written Christós (Christ, in greek). ...

Arfle, barfle, gloop

Used by those with a BBC Micro or Sinclair Spectrum background. Originated as the response of the parser of a Level 9 BBC Micro adventure game to input it didn't understand. [3] An example of its use can be seen in this gcc bug report, along with other interesting metasyntactic variables. The BBC Microcomputer System was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers Ltd for the BBC Computer Literacy Project operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a small home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. ... Level 9 was a British computer adventure game company who produced some of the most advanced games of the 1980s. ... This is an article about the computer and video game genre. ...

Spam, ham, and eggs

Spam, ham, and eggs are the canonical metasyntactic variables used in the Python programming language. This is a reference to the famous comedy sketch Spam by Monty Python, the namesake of the language. This article is about the canned meat product. ... Python is a high-level programming language first released by Guido van Rossum in 1991. ... Terry Jones (in the back), Eric Idle, and Graham Chapman in the Monty Python skit Spam. Spam is a popular Monty Python sketch, first broadcast in 1970. ... Monty Python, or The Pythons, is the collective name of the creators of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... If a person, place, or thing is named after a different person, place, or thing, then one is said to be the namesake of the other. ...

Wibble

First recorded in the 1840s alongside wobble, wibble rose to prominence after it was used as a nonsense word in the Roger Irrelevant cartoon strip in UK adult comic Viz in the 1980s and later used in an episode of Blackadder Goes Forth in 1989. The term is also used as a synonym for chatter and other contentless remarks, and (rarely) as a way of pronouncing "www" Look up wobble in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Nonsense is an utterance or written text in what appears to be a human language or other symbolic system, that does not in fact carry any identifiable meaning. ... Roger Irrelevant is the name of a cartoon strip in the British comic Viz, as well as the name of the main character. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Cover of Viz (issue 57) Viz is a popular British adult comic magazine that has been running since 1979. ... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... Blackadder Goes Forth was the fourth and final series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989. ... Synonyms (in ancient Greek, συν (syn) = plus and όνομα (onoma) = name) are different words with similar or identical meanings. ... Look up chat in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Graphic representation of the world wide web around Wikipedia The World Wide Web (WWW, or simply Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). ...

In popular culture a 'Wibblenut' is a popular and witty individual, known for making clever and insightful comments.

In recent years, the term has come to mean to cry in such a way as to seem adorable, especially when one unwillingly instigates pity for oneself in the act of crying, and is often found when used in reference to fictional characters. This instance primarily occurs in the form of Internet slang, as it appears in Web forums and on blog sites, but may also be used in face-to-face conversation among peers as well.

Another usage of the word online is attributed to Dr. Samuel Ramsden, and is a term of random oddity, or a non sequitur, and briefly became an obsession on Star Trek roleplaying games.

Other examples

Other words used as metasyntactic variables include: beekeeper, bing, blarg, bleh, blort, corge, doit, dothestuff, garply, glarb, glarch, grault, hoge, kalaa, kuku, mum, puppu, stuff, smoo, sub, temp, test, thud, var, waldo, momo.

The word xyzzy is a "magic word" from the Colossal Cave Adventure, and therefore is often used as a metasyntactic variable, especially by old-school hackers. It turns up occasionally in other contexts, such as being the cheat code for Minesweeper on many versions of Microsoft Windows ^[1]. It is also the cheat-enabler in the popular PC game RoadRash. Magic words are words which have a specific, and sometimes unintended, effect. ... Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure) (Crowther & Woods, 1976) was the first computer adventure game. ... Old school, variously spelled old skool, oldschool or oldskool, is a slang term referring to an older school of thinking or acting and to old objects in general, within the context of newer, more modern times. ... This article is about computer hacking. ... For other uses, see Cheat code (disambiguation). ... Minesweeper is a single-player computer game, invented by Robert Donner in 1989. ... “Windows” redirects here. ... This article is considered orphaned, since there are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

Plugh, like xyzzy, is a "magic word" from the Colossal Cave Adventure. Similarly, blort is the name of a magic potion in the Infocom game Sorcerer (see Zork magic). Magic words are words which have a specific, and sometimes unintended, effect. ... Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure) (Crowther & Woods, 1976) was the first computer adventure game. ... Zork universe Zork games Zork trilogy Zork I Zork II Zork III Enchanter trilogy Enchanter Sorcerer Spellbreaker Wishbringer Beyond Zork Zork Zero Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis Zork Grand Inquisitor Encyclopedia Encyclopedia Frobozzica Miscellaneous Timeline   Calendar   Magic Double Fanucci Companies Infocom   Activision This article is about the computer game. ...

The term blah is often used because of its use as a placeholder term in common English speech. For example, here is how one might describe casually how to write a letter in colloquial English: "You write 'Dear so-and-so, blah, blah, blah, Sincerely, your name.'" For other uses, see Blah (disambiguation). ...

Standard English uses the word whatever as a metasyntactic word. It is one of the few that is actually in the dictionary as such, similar to wherever, however, and whenever. Despite being in the dictionary, whatever rarely makes the lists of metasyntactic variables. Using foo for many audiences would require explanation, but using whatever is readily accepted.

Numbers

17

Long described at MIT as 'the most random number'. [4] Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ...

23

The number 23 is also commonly used as an integer example—particularly when the connotations associated with 42 are undesirable. This number is noted as important in the Principia Discordia due to its relation to The Law of Fives, and is further popularized in the Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. It also makes frequent appearances in the novels of Robert Rankin, and to some extent may be regarded as 'Rankin's 42'. 23 (twenty-three) is the natural number following 22 and preceding 24. ... Look up forty-two in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Loompanics Yellow Cover combined 4th & 5th Edition Principia Discordia, (1979). ... Discordianism is a modern, chaos-centered religion founded circa 1958–1959 by Malaclypse the Younger with the publication of its principal text, the Principia Discordia. ... 23 The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. ... Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was a prolific American novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurologist, anarchist, and conspiracy theory researcher. ... Robert Joseph Shea (1933 - March 10, 1994) was the co-author (with Robert Anton Wilson) of The Illuminatus! Trilogy. ... Robert Rankin Robert Fleming Rankin (born July 27, 1949) is a prolific British humorous novelist. ...

37

37 is often selected by people asked to choose a number between 10 and 50, in which the two digits are not equal.^[2] Consequently it is frequently chosen as a supposedly "random" number. The number also features prominently in the movie "Clerks" [5]. This article is about the film. ...

42

The number 42 is often a common initializer for integer variables, and acts in the same vein as a "metasyntactic value". It is taken from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where Deep Thought concluded that it was "the answer," ultimately The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Look up forty-two in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. ... The cover of the first novel in the Hitchhikers series, from a late 1990s printing. ... There are many minor characters in the various versions of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. ... The Answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe, and Everything is a fictional solution in Douglas Adamss science fiction series The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. ...

47

The number 47 is sometimes used instead of 42 above, and is used mainly by members of the 47 society, Chief Delphi members, Pomona College graduates, or New Trek fans. The number is sometimes described as "42 corrected for inflation". 47 (forty-seven) is the natural number following 46 and preceding 48. ... The Reba Taylor Stover Memorial Fountain in the Smith Campus Center courtyard at Pomona College during the inauguration of College President David Oxtoby Pomona College is a private residential liberal arts college located 33 miles (53 km) east of downtown Los Angeles in Claremont, California. ... The current Star Trek franchise logo Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series and media franchise. ...

69

69 is often used as an example number. Popular among hackers as an addition to metasyntactic variables (foo69, bar69), also used in all sorts of hacks. 69 is popular because of its reference to a sexual position. It is also notable because it is the largest number whose factorial can be calculated by a pocket calculator limited to standard scientific notation with a 2 digit exponent. Montréal subway operators also routinely dial “69” on their train indicator numbers when they take their train out of service. 69 (sixty-nine) is a number following 68 and preceding 70. ... Engraving by Félicien Rops for Le Diable au Corps, 1865 69 Sex Position The 69 position, also known by its French name soixante-neuf, is one of the most commonly known sexual positions. ... For factorial rings in mathematics, see unique factorisation domain. ... Scientific notation, also known as standard form, is a notation for writing numbers that is often used by scientists and mathematicians to make it easier to write large and small numbers. ...

105

105 is sometimes used in conjunction with 69 due to the observation that 105 base 8 equals 69 in decimal, and 69 base 16 equals 105 in decimal. 105 (one hundred [and] five) is the natural number following 104 and preceding 106. ...

666

666 is the Number of the Beast, and often refers to something considered bad or evil. 666 is the natural number following 665 and preceding 667. ... The Number of the Beast is mentioned in the Book of Revelation of the Christian New Testament and has long been accepted to be 666. ...

0815

0815 (named after the repetitive and boring MG 08/15-training) is used in German as either a random number or to reflect something mainstream, normal or boring. MG08 with optical sight. ...

OU812

OU812 ("Oh, you ate one too") is the name of an album by Van Halen, and is often used for its amusing phonetic properties as well as the fact that it contains both letters and numbers, useful for testing alphanumeric fields. OU812 is the eighth album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1988. ... This article is about the band Van Halen. ...

1337

1337 stands for leet, in Leetspeak; because of this positive (or ironic) connotation, it is commonly used. Shortened form of 31337, "eleet" (elite). This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... An example of a Leet web browser (Text instead of GUI) in Leet language on a Leet language version of Google Leet (often also leetspeak, leetspeek, or l33t) from the phonetic form of the word elite, is a cipher, or novel form of English spelling. ...

1701

1701 is often used by Star Trek fan programmers, because of its reference to the Starship Enterprise. 1701 is the natural number preceding 1702 and following 1700. ... The current Star Trek franchise logo Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series and media franchise. ... Enterprise or USS Enterprise are the names of several fictional starships, some of which are the focal point for various television series and films in the Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. ...

4711

4711, which is a brand of Eau de Cologne, is sometimes used by software engineers where an indeterminate, but specific, number is needed. ^[3][4] 4711 is the Eau de Cologne brand of Mäurer & Wirtz and is produced in Cologne, Germany. ... Original Eau de Cologne Bottle of Original Eau de Cologne Bottle of Eau de Cologne Trojnoj Eau de Cologne (French for water of Cologne, Kölnisch Wasser in German) is a type of light perfume that originated in Cologne, Germany and is defined by its typical concentration of about 2... Software engineering (SE) is the profession concerned with specifying, designing, developing and maintaining software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, and other fields. ...

4744

Used to represent the largest quantity possible, stemming from the most powerful single-engined diesel-electric locomotive in the world, a 4000 HP Montreal Locomotive Works-built M-640 used by the Canadian Pacific Railway until the early 1990’s. Great Western Railway No. ... Montreal Locomotive Works builders plate, 1913 Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) was a Canadian railway locomotive manufacturer which existed under several names from 1883-1985, producing both steam and diesel locomotives. ... An eastbound CPR freight at Stoney Creek Bridge in Rogers Pass. ...

48879

48879 is commonly used as a hexadecimal number where it is represented as "BEEF". It often follows 57005 to form the hexadecimal phrase "DEAD BEEF". In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal, base-16, or simply hex, is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16, usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F, or a–f. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

49374

49374 is commonly used as a hexadecimal number where it is represented as "C0DE". It often follows 57005 to form the hexadecimal phrase "DEAD C0DE"; together these numbers are used in places to indicate source code that no longer works or is no longer used.

57005

57005 is commonly used as a hexadecimal number where it is represented as "DEAD".

61453

61453 is commonly used as a hexadecimal number where it is represented as "F00D". It often follows 47789 to form the hexadecimal phrase "BAAD F00D". In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal, base-16, or simply hex, is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16, usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F, or a–f. ... 0xBAADF00D is a number written in hexadecimal notation, with the decimal value of 3131961357, with the octal value of 27253370015, and with the binary value of 10111010101011011111000000001101. ...

715517

715517 is used in Finnish computer speak as a boobs (tissit). // Sexual slang is any slang term which makes reference to sex, the sexual organs, or matters closely related to them. ...

12648430

12648430 is commonly used as a hexadecimal number where it is represented as "C0FFEE".

3405691582

Used to fill a 32-bit value to mark it bad or unused, because of its hexadecimal representation "CAFEBABE". It is also used as the opening of compiled Java class files. In computer programming, a magic number is a constant used to identify the file or data type employed. ...

3735928559

Used to fill a 32-bit value to mark it bad or unused, because of its hexadecimal representation "DEADBEEF". Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Names of people

J. Random and Ned Baker

J. Random and Ned Baker are the names of archetypal users; compare to "The Joneses". J. Random Hacker and J. Random User are also common. J. Random, followed by a term for a category of people, capitalized, to make an appearance of a personal name, is a placeholder name for an undistinguished, average person from the category, e. ... For other uses, see Archetype (disambiguation). ... Look up keep up with the Joneses in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... J. Random, followed by a term for a category of people, capitalized, to make an appearance of a personal name, is a placeholder name for an undistinguished, average person from the category, e. ...

Alice and Bob

Alice and Bob are names of the archetypal individuals used as examples in discussions of cryptographic protocols. Others include: The names Alice and Bob are commonly used placeholders for archetypal characters in fields such as cryptography and physics. ... Alice and Bob are common archetypal characters used in explanations in fields such as cryptography and physics. ... The German Lorenz cipher machine, used in World War II for encryption of very high-level general staff messages Cryptography (or cryptology; derived from Greek κρυπτός kryptós hidden, and the verb γράφω gráfo write or λεγειν legein to speak) is the study of message secrecy. ... For other senses of this word, see protocol. ...

• Carol - a participant in three- and four-party protocols
• Dave - a participant in four-party protocols
• Ellen - a participant in five- and six-party protocols
• Frank - a participant in six-party protocols, and so on
• Eve or Oscar - an (evil) eavesdropper
• Mallory or Mallet - a malicious active attacker
• Trent - a trusted arbitrator
• Walter - a warden
• Peggy - a prover
• Victor - a verifier
• Sam - a trusted server (Uncle Sam)
• Charlie - a challenger or opponent
• Trudy - an intruder or malicious entity

Bob, Alice and Carol may have come from the 1969 movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, or from the fact that they are common English names starting with A, B and C, the first letters of the alphabet. Dave, Ellen, and Frank are the next three letters. Some people continue this pattern, using Gloria or another similar term for the seventh participant, and so on (maintaining the pattern female, male, female, male...). Eavesdropping is the intercepting and reading of messages and conversations by unintended recipients. ... Arbitration is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, wherein the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the arbitrators or arbitral tribunal), by whose decision (the award) they agree to be bound. ... This article is about the national personification of the USA. For other uses, see Uncle Sam (disambiguation). ... Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... This article is about the 1969 film. ... ABCs redirects here, for the Alien Big Cats, see British big cats. ...

Fred and Barney

After the characters in the cartoon series The Flintstones. The most famous use of these is the example code in Learning Perl. Fred is also known to have been used simply because the keys are close together on the QWERTY keyboard. The Flintstones is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. ... Learning Perl book cover Learning Perl, also known as the llama book, is a tutorial book for the Perl programming language, and is published by OReilly. ... For the song by Linkin Park, see QWERTY (song). ...

Romeo and Juliet

JIDs like romeo@montague.net and juliet@capulet.com/balcony are often used in Jabber enhancement proposals in the same way as Alice and Bob. Official logo of the Jabber Software Foundation Jabber is a collection of open, real-time communication technologies built on the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). ... Official logo of the Jabber Software Foundation Jabber is a collection of open, real-time communication technologies built on the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). ...

Military names

Some names are most commonly used in military context.

• Private Snuffy
• LCpl Benotz specific to the USMC
• Susie Rottencrotch or Jane Rottencrotch; from the movie Full Metal Jacket
• GI Joe or GI Jane
• Beetle Bailey from the comic strip of the same name
• Gomer Pyle or Private Pyle; from the television show of the same name, also popularized by the movie Full Metal Jacket
• Tommy Atkins, origin of the name "Tommy" for a British soldier
• Private Bloggins, used primarily within the Canadian Forces as an arbitrary person, much like John Smith.
• Private N. Nönnönnöö (initials N.N.), example name used in training in the Finnish Defence Forces.

United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the second smallest of the five branches of the United States armed forces, with 170,000 active and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2002. ... For the type of ammunition, see Full metal jacket bullet. ... A page from the comic book version of Beetle Bailey. ... Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show Gomer Pyle was the simple-minded gas station attendant and later auto mechanic in the American TV sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, played by Jim Nabors. ... Tommies from the Royal Irish Rifles in the trenches during the First World War. ... Joe Bloggins, or Private Bloggins, is a hypothetical Canadian soldier referred to in training, often when giving a cautionary example of incompetence leading to misfortune. ... The Finnish Defence Forces (Finnish Puolustusvoimat; Swedish Försvarsmakten) is a cadre army of 16500, of which 8700 professional soldiers (officers), with a standard readiness strength of 34,700 people in uniform (27,300 army, 3,000 navy, and 4,400 air force). ...

Members of the Military

Branches of the U.S. military, as well as the Naval Academy specifically, often use certain names as placeholders when describing a theoretical event.

• W.T. Door - Any Naval Academy Midshipman (though often, a freshman). The name is a reference to the common occurrence of the writing on shipboard hatches to mean "water tight door." Midshipmen's nameplates on their dorm rooms read firstinitial. middleinitial. lastname. Hence, the joke is that the water tight door is actually the entrance to W.T.'s sleeping quarters.
• Joe Gish - W.T. Door's roommate
• Joe Mid - Any Naval Academy Midshipman
• Seaman Timmy - Often used to take the place of a helpless or "green" Sailor
• G.I. Joe - Any male Soldier
• G.I. Jane - Any female Soldier
• (Some Rank, usually very junior) Schmuckatelly - Any member

Other names

Sometimes placeholders from other contexts will be used: John Doe, Jane Roe, Richard Roe, A. N. Other, John Q. Public, and Bloggs or Joe Bloggs. Other nonsense names come from swapping initials, e.g. J. Pennings. The name John Doe is generally used in the United States as a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action or legal discussion whose true identity is unknown. ... Jane Roe and Richard Roe come from the United States legal tradition of pseudonyms for anonymous litgants. ... Jane Roe and Richard Roe come from the United States legal tradition of pseudonyms for anonymous litgants. ... A. N. Other is a pseudonym used by a person wishing to remain anonymous. ... The name John Q. Public is used on a sample Social Security card John Q. Public is a generic name in the United States to denote a hypothetical member of society deemed a common man. ... The surname Bloggs or the full name Joe Bloggs or Jo Bloggs is a commonly used placeholder name in United Kingdom teaching, programming, and other thinking and writing. ... The surname Bloggs or the full name Joe Bloggs is a commonly used placeholder name in United Kingdom teaching, programming, and other thinking and writing. ...

Companies

Yoyodyne, Acme, Ajax are frequently used. Yoyodyne is a fictional defense contractor introduced in Thomas Pynchons V. (1961) and featured prominently in his novel The Crying of Lot 49 (1965). ... The Acme Corporation (sometimes made a backronym to: A Company (that) Makes Everything - though this is in dispute) is a fictional corporation that exists in the Looney Tunes universe. ... // Ajax may refer to: Ajax the great as a well known hero from the Trojan war and son of Telamon Ajax the lesser son of the king of Locris, and another hero in the Trojan war Ajax (programming), a technique used in web application development Ajax framework, a framework for...

Place names

Smallville and Metropolis

Smallville and Metropolis are fictional places from the Superman series of comic books. These are used to contrast urban and rural characteristics. This article is about Supermans adoptive home town. ... Metropolis Skyline, as seen in Smallville. ... Superman is a fictional character and comic book superhero , originally created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. ...

Also used to describe a location of extreme remoteness or that is difficult to access. "Bumfuck, Nowhere".

East Jesus

Another name for a remote, rural or backward small town. The religious reference might imply a town with conservative or religious values or might simply be used for its mildly blasphemous humor. For the black metal band, see Blasphemy (band). ...

Jerkwater Town

Yet another name for a remote, rural or backward small town.

One theory of the term's origin is in the late 19th century from when steam powered trains needed to refill their water tanks regularly. The trains did not stop at extremely small towns where only people were boarding. Instead they slowed down so that riders could hop on and off. Since the tanks still needed to be refilled, barrels of water were "jerked" aboard from platforms as the train passed. [6]

There is also a possible etymological relationship with the term "jerk" when applied to a person to indicate that they are dull or stupid.

Middle of Nowhere

Sometimes colloquially known as In the Sticks, In the Boonies, East Buttfuck, "Bumfuck, Egypt" (BFE), East Boofu, Back of Bourke Unlike Nowhere; these metasyntactic variables indicate extreme remoteness and suggest contempt.

Plumnelly

Another term for a remote location, Plumnelly is often used in the context of a border between two states or other areas: "plum out of Georgia and nelly out of Alabama." It can also be expressed as "plum out of town and nelly out of this world" to suggest that the location is so remote it has almost left the map entirely.

Podunk University

This term is sometimes a placeholder for a generic university.

Y.U. Bum University

This term is sometimes a placeholder for a less generic university. Pronounced like "Why you bum, you."

University of Poppleton

This term is used in the United Kingdom as a place holder for a generic university. It is taken from a column written by Laurie Taylor in the Times Higher Education Supplement. The Higher Education Funding Council for England has a permanent test university for testing computer applications called the Poppleton University of Testing. Laurie Taylor may refer to the following people: Laurie Taylor — the British sociologist and radio presenter This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... The Times Higher Education Supplement, known as The Times Higher for short, is a newspaper based in London, United Kingdom, that reports specifically on issues related to education. ... The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Education and Skills in the United Kingdom which distributes funding to Universities and Colleges of Higher and Further Education in England since 1992. ...

Waikikamukau

Traditional New Zealand placeholder for a small rural town. A plausible looking Māori place name, but which would be pronounced "Why kick a moo-cow?". Māori (or Maori) is a language spoken by the native peoples of New Zealand and the Cook Islands. ...

Beyond the Black Stump

Traditional Australian placeholder for somewhere distant or remote. Has connotations of "out in the outback somewhere." Also a novel by Neville Shute, and a comic strip.

Wassamatta U.

Sometimes used for any university. Almost never used with more than "U." to represent "university". Less common than Y.U Bum U., or others. Used in the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon series. Out loud, it sounds like "what's the matter [with] you" spoken with a strong Italian accent. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (also known as Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show) was a television animated series created and produced in the USA by Jay Ward. ...

Blackacre, Whiteacre and Greenacre

Blackacre, Whiteacre, Greenacre, and variations thereof are the placeholder names of fictitious estates in land universally used by professors of law in common law jurisdictions, particularly in the area of real property, to discuss the rights of various parties to a piece of land. Blackacre, Whiteacre, Greenacre, and variations thereof are the placeholder names of fictitious estates in land universally used by professors of law in common law jurisdictions, particularly in the area of real property, to discuss the rights of various parties to a piece of land. ...

Images

Test cards have been used as standard test images, as has Lenna. Test pattern A test card, also known as a test pattern in North America, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no programme is being broadcast (often at startup and closedown). ... In order to intuitively test the effects of an image-processing algorithm on a natural picture a number of test images are in common use in the image-processing field. ... Image of Lena Söderberg famously used in many image processing experiments. ...

Other languages

Other languages sometimes have their own metasyntactic variables. For example:

• Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding - from Chinese
• Alena, prase - from Czech
• flaf, giraf, boing, kohest - from Danish
• Aap, Noot, Mies - from Dutch
• pippo, pluto, paperino (Italian names of the Disney characters Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck) - from Italian
• Maria Bernasconi - from Italian in Switzerland
• toto, tata, titi - from French
• koko, lala, malakia - from Greek
• hoge, hogehoge, moge, huga, piyo - from Japanese
• peh, meh, shmeh - from Yiddish
• bla, nha, la, patati, patata - from Portuguese
• huu, haa - from Finnish
• hahaa, hihii, hohoo - also from Finnish
• kalatehas (fish factory) - from Estonian
• muh, bla, blubb, schlurps, schnurz, Lieschen Mueller - from German
• bubu, mumu, zeze - from Romanian
• brol, prout - from French in Belgium
• apa (the Swedish word for monkey), bepa, cepa, depa, flepa (alphabetical generalizations of apa); bla, blahuj, bulle, ugg, ugga, blargh, gunk, tjo, bork; Kalle, Olle, Pelle, Nisse (the diminutives of Karl, Olof, Per and Nils respectively) - from Swedish
• filan, hede, hödö, zıvır, ıvır - from Turkish
• fulano, mengano, zutano, pepe (Joe), pp (phonetic equivalent), cosa (in spanish, "cosa" can be anything, but usually refers to some physical object) - from Spanish
• Ploni (פלוני) as a person's name; Reuven (ראובן) and Shim'on (שמעון) as two persons (after Jacob's Sons)- from Hebrew
• Kuppuswamy, Ramaswamy - from Tamil
• Gipsz Jakab - from Hungarian

Disney may refer to: The Walt Disney Company and its divisions, including Walt Disney Pictures. ... This article is about the Disney character. ... Pluto Pluto is a fictional character made famous in a series of Disney short cartoons. ... Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book character from Walt Disney Productions. ... Italian ( , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people,[2] primarily in Italy. ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... The Swedish Chef, making chocolate moose The Swedish Chef is a Muppet who appeared in the long-running The Muppet Show and was operated by Jim Henson and Frank Oz simultaneously. ... Jacob Wrestling with the Angel – Gustave Doré, 1855 Jacob or Yaakov, (Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב, Standard  Tiberian ; Arabic: يعقوب, ; holds the heel), also known as Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל, Standard  Tiberian ; Arabic: اسرائيل, ; Struggled with God), is the third Biblical patriarch. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Tamil ( ; IPA ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, with smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. ...

See also

• Placeholder name
• Free variables and bound variables
• gadget
• widget
• Hello World
• Lorem Ipsum
• Fnord
• Alice and Bob
• John Doe

Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context which it is being discussed. ... In computer programming, a free variable is a variable referred to in a function that is not a local variable or an argument of that function. ... For other uses, see Gadget (disambiguation). ... Look up widget in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A hello world program is a computer program that prints out Hello, world! on a display device. ... Using lorem ipsum to focus attention on graphic elements in a website design proposal. ... Look up Fnord in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The names Alice and Bob are commonly used placeholders for archetypal characters in fields such as cryptography and physics. ... The name John Doe is generally used in the United States as a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action or legal discussion whose true identity is unknown. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.eeggs.com/items/6818.html]
2. ^ Poundstone, William (1983). Big Secrets. Quill, pp. 178-179. ISBN 0-688-04830-7. 
3. ^ "Business entities like account 4711, customer Jones, account 007, customer Smith are located on the banking company server." Software Architectures: Advances and Applications.
4. ^ The point of the crash usually looks something like this "function+0x4711". MirOS Manual: crash(8).
   

William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and skeptic. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

External links

• The Jargon File entry on Foo, and also the entry on Commonwealth Hackish for non-US English words such as "wombat".
• RFC 3092 - The IETF memo on Foo (note that this is an April Fools' Day RFC memo).
• Acme::MetaSyntactic A Perl module providing metasyntactic variable names. Updated weekly.
• Jack and the Beanstalk, three versions of an English fairy tale, edited by prof. D. L. Ashliman.
• "Meet John Doe: stand-ins", section 3.7 in Ian Watson, Cognitive Design (Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University, 2005).

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is charged with developing and promoting Internet standards. ... Almost every April Fools Day (1 April) since 1989, the Internet Engineering Task Force has published one or more humorous RFC documents, following in the path blazed by the June 1973 RFC 527 entitled ARPAWOCKY. The following list also includes humorous RFCs published on other dates. ...

External links

• The Jargon File entry on Foo
• RFC 3092 - The IETF memo on Foo (note that this is an April Fool's Day RFC memo)
• Acme::MetaSyntactic A Perl module providing metasyntactic variable names. Updated weekly.