From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: Foo and bar
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 12:52:52 GMT

> "Foo" and "bar" mean nothing; they have become standard words used by
> CS types to stand for another arbitrary word.  They come from dividing
> the (Navy, I think) acronym "fubar", which stands for "Fucked Up
> Beyond All Repair" ...
The last word is usually given as "recognition".

It turns out that this explains "bar", but not necessarily "foo".
Here are the relevant excerpts from the recent release 2.9.9 of
the Jargon File:

  :foo: /foo/ 1. interj. Term of disgust.  2. Used very generally
     as a sample name for absolutely anything, esp. programs and files
     (esp. scratch files).  3. First on the standard list of
     {metasyntactic variable}s used in syntax examples.  See also
     {bar}, {baz}, {qux}, {quux}, {corge}, {grault},
     {garply}, {waldo}, {fred}, {plugh}, {xyzzy},
     {thud}.
  
     The etymology of hackish `foo' is obscure.  When used in
     connection with `bar' it is generally traced to the WWII-era Army
     slang acronym FUBAR (`Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition'), later
     bowdlerized to {foobar}.  (See also {FUBAR}).
  
     However, the use of the word `foo' itself has more complicated
     antecedents, including a long history in comic strips and cartoons.
     The old "Smokey Stover" comic strips by Bill Holman often
     included the word `FOO', in particular on license plates of cars;
     allegedly, `FOO' and `BAR' also occurred in Walt Kelly's
     "Pogo" strips.  In the 1938 cartoon "Daffy Doc", a very
     early version of Daffy Duck holds up a sign saying "SILENCE IS
     FOO!"; oddly, this seems to refer to some approving or positive
     affirmative use of foo.  It is even possible that hacker usage
     actually springs from `FOO, Lampoons and Parody', the title of
     a comic book first issued in September 1958; the byline read
     `C. Crumb' but this may well have been a sort-of pseudonym for
     noted weird-comix artist Robert Crumb.  The title FOO was featured
     in large letters on the front cover.
  
     An old-time member reports that in the 1959 `Dictionary of the
     TMRC Language', compiled at {TMRC} there was an entry that went
     something like this:
  
       FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE PADME
       HUM."  Our first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning.
  
     For more about the legendary foo counters, see {TMRC}.  Almost
     the entire staff of what became the MIT AI LAB was involved with
     TMRC, and probably picked the word up there.
  
     Very probably, hackish `foo' had no single origin and derives
     through all these channels from Yiddish `feh' and/or English
     `fooey'.
  
  :foobar: n. Another common {metasyntactic variable}; see {foo}.
     Hackers do *not* generally use this to mean {FUBAR} in
     either the slang or jargon sense.
  
  :bar: /bar/ n. 1. The second {metasyntactic variable}, after {foo}
     and before {baz}.  "Suppose we have two functions: FOO and BAR.
     FOO calls BAR...."  2. Often appended to {foo} to produce
     {foobar}.
  
  :baz: /baz/ n. 1. The third {metasyntactic variable} "Suppose we
     have three functions: FOO, BAR, and BAZ.  FOO calls BAR, which
     calls BAZ...." (See also {fum}) 2. interj. A term of mild
     annoyance.  In this usage the term is often drawn out for 2 or 3
     seconds, producing an effect not unlike the bleating of a sheep;
     /baaaaaaz/.  3. Occasionally appended to {foo} to produce
     `foobaz'.
  
     Earlier versions of this lexicon derived `baz' as a Stanford
     corruption of {bar}.  However, Pete Samson (compiler of the
     {TMRC} lexicon) reports it was already current when he joined TMRC
     in 1958.  He says "It came from `Pogo'.  Albert the Alligator,
     when vexed or outraged, would shout `Bazz Fazz!' or `Rowrbazzle!'
     The club layout was said to model the (mythical) New England
     counties of Rowrfolk and Bassex (Rowrbazzle mingled with
     (Norfolk/Suffolk/Middlesex/Essex)."
  
  :TMRC: /tmerk'/ n. The Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, one of
     the wellsprings of hacker culture.  The 1959 `Dictionary of
     the TMRC Language' compiled by Peter Samson included several terms
     which became basics of the hackish vocabulary (see esp. {foo}
     and {frob}).
  
     By 1962, TMRC's legendary layout was already a marvel of
     complexity.  The control system alone featured about 1200 relays.
     There were {scram switch}es located at numerous places around
     the room that could be pressed if something undesirable was about
     to occur, such as a train going full-bore at an obstruction.
     Another feature of the system was a digital clock on the dispatch
     board.  Normally it ran at some multiple of real time, but if
     someone hit a scram switch the clock stopped and the display was
     replaced with the word `FOO'.
  
     Steven Levy, in his book `Hackers' (see the Bibliography in
     {appendix C}), gives a stimulating account of those early
     years.  TMRC's Power and Signals group included most of the early
     PDP-1 hackers and the people who later bacame the core of the MIT
     AI Lab staff.  Thirty years later that connection is still very
     much alive, and this lexicon accordingly includes a number of
     entries from a recent revision of the TMRC Dictionary.
-- 
Mark Brader			"A facility for quotation covers the absence
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto		 of original thought"	-- Lord Peter Wimsey
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com		(Dorothy L. Sayers, "Gaudy Night")

This article is in the public domain, including the Jargon File excerpts.