236 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
236 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
pronunciation guide for unix
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29 Apr 97
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How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
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You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
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about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
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"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
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say "six". How you pronounce "vi" has nothing to do with whether
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or not you are a true Unix wizard.
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Similarly, you'll find that some people pronounce "char" as "care",
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and that there are lots of ways to say "#" or "/*" or "!" or
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"tty" or "/etc". No one pronunciation is correct - enjoy the regional
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dialects and accents.
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Since this topic keeps coming up on the net, here is a comprehensive
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pronunciation list that has made the rounds.
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The Pronunciation Guide
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-----------------------
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version 2.5
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Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
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with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and names deserving
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further explanation are marked with a #. The explanations will be given at
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the very end.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-- SINGLE CHARACTERS --
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SPACE, blank, ghost&
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! EXCLAMATION POINT, exclamation (mark), (ex)clam, excl, wow, hey, boing,
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bang#, shout, yell, shriek, pling, factorial, ball-bat, smash, cuss,
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store#, potion&, not*+, dammit*#
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" QUOTATION MARK, (double) quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears,
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double ping, double glitch, amulet&, web&, inverted commas
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# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
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hash, (garden) fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen,
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tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden) gate, hak, oof, rake, sink&,
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corridor&, unequal#, punch mark
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$ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#,
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ding, big-money, gold&, Sonne#
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% PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes, food&
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& AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman,
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bitand+, donald duck#, daemon&, background*, pretzel
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' APOSTROPHE, (single) quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch,
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lurker above&
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* ASTERISK, star, splat, spider, aster, times, wildcard*, gear, dingle,
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(Nathan) Hale#, bug, gem&, twinkle, funny button#, pine cone, glob*
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() PARENTHESES, parens, round brackets, bananas, ears, bowlegs
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( LEFT PARENTHESIS, (open) paren, so, wane, parenthesee, open, sad,
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tool&
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) RIGHT PARENTHESIS, already, wax, unparenthesee, close (paren), happy,
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thesis, weapon&
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+ PLUS SIGN, plus, add, cross, and, intersection, door&, spellbook&
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, COMMA, tail, trapper&
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- HYPHEN, minus (sign), dash, dak, option, flag, negative (sign), worm,
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bithorpe#
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. PERIOD, dot, decimal (point), (radix) point, spot, full stop,
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put#, floor&
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/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
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across#, compress#, reduce#, replicate#, spare, divided-by, wand&,
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forward slash, shilling#
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: COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&
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; SEMICOLON, semi, hybrid, giant eel&, go-on#
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<> ANGLE BRACKETS, angles, funnels, brokets, pointy brackets, widgets
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< LESS THAN, less, read from*, from*, in*, comesfrom*, crunch,
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sucks, left chevron#, open pointy (brack[et]), bra#, upstairs&, west,
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(left|open) widget
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> GREATER THAN, more, write to*, into/toward*, out*, gazinta*, zap,
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blows, right chevron#, closing pointy (brack[et]), ket#, downstairs&,
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east, (right|close) widget
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= EQUAL SIGN, equal(s), gets, becomes, quadrathorpe#, half-mesh, ring&
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? QUESTION MARK, question, query, whatmark, what, wildchar*, huh, ques,
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kwes, quiz, quark, hook, scroll&, interrogation point
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@ AT SIGN, at, each, vortex, whirl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape (tail),
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cat, snable-a#, trunk-a#, rose, cabbage, Mercantile symbol, strudel#,
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fetch#, shopkeeper&, human&, commercial-at, monkey (tail)
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[] BRACKETS, square brackets, U-turns, edged parentheses
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[ LEFT BRACKET, bracket, bra, (left) square (brack[et]), opensquare,
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armor&
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] RIGHT BRACKET, unbracket, ket, right square (brack[et]), unsquare, close,
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mimic&
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\ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, (back)slant, backwhack, backslat,
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escape*, backslak, bak, scan#, expand#, opulent throne&, slosh, slope,
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blash
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^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, (top)hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop,
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up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, power, to-the(-power), fang,
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sharkfin, and#, xor+, wok, trap&, pointer#, pipe*, upper-than#
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_ UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank,
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chain&, gets#, dash#, sneak
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` GRAVE, (grave/acute) accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime,
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unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch,
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backping, execute#, boulder&, rock&, blip
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{} BRACES, curly braces, squiggly braces, curly brackets, squiggle brackets,
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Tuborgs#, ponds, curly chevrons#, squirrly braces, hitchcocks#,
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chippendale brackets#
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{ LEFT BRACE, brace, curly, leftit, embrace, openbrace, begin+,
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fountain&
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} RIGHT BRACE, unbrace, uncurly, rytit, bracelet, close, end+, a pool&
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| VERTICAL BAR, pipe*, pipe to*, vertical line, broken line#, bar, or+,
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bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube,
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mark, whack, gutter, wall&
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~ TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx,
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wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm, not+
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-- MULTIPLE CHARACTER STRINGS --
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!? interrobang (one overlapped character)
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*/ asterslash+, times-div#
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/* slashterix+, slashaster
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:= becomes#
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<- gets
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<< left-shift+, double smaller
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<> unequal#
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>> appends*, cat-astrophe, right-shift+, double greater
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-> arrow+, pointer to+, hiccup+
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#! sh'bang, wallop
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\!* bash-bang-splat
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() nil#
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&& and+, and-and+, amper-amper, succeeds-then*
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|| or+, or-or+, fails-then*
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-- NOTES --
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! bang comes from old card punch phenom where punching ! code made a
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loud noise; however, this pronunciation is used in the (non-
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computerized) publishing and typesetting industry in the U.S.
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too, so ...
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Alternatively it could have come from comic books, where the
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words each character utters are shown in a "balloon" near that
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character's head. When one character shoots another, it is
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common to see a balloon pointing at the barrel of the gun to
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denote that the gun had been fired, not merely aimed.
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That balloon contained the word "!" -- hence, "!" == "Bang!"
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! store from FORTH
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! dammit as in "quit, dammit!" while exiting vi and hoping one hasn't
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clobbered a file too badly
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# octothorpe from Bell System (orig. octalthorpe)
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# unequal e.g. Modula-2
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$ string from BASIC
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$ escape from TOPS-10
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$ Sonne In the "socialist" countries they used and are using all kinds
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of IBM clones (hardware + sw). It was a common practice just
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to rename everything (IBM 360 --> ESER 1040 etc.).
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Of course the "dollar" sign had to be renamed - it became the
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"international currency symbol" which looks like a circle with
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4 rays spreading from it:
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____
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\/ \/
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/ \
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\ /
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/\____/\
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Because it looks like a (small) shining sun, in the German
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Democratic Republic it was usually called "Sonne" (sun).
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& donald duck from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
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* splat from DEC "spider" glyph
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* Nathan Hale "I have but one asterisk for my country."
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* funny button at Pacific Bell, * was referred to by employees as the "funny
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button", which did not please management at all when it became
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part of the corporate logo of Pacific Telesis, the holding
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company ...
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*/ times-div from FORTH
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= quadrathorpe half an octothorpe
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- bithorpe half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?)
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. put Victor Borge's Phonetic Punctuation which dates back to the
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middle 1950's
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/ across APL
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/ compress APL
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/ reduce APL
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/ replicate APL
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/ shilling from the British currency symbol
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:= becomes e.g. Pascal
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; go-on Algol68
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< left chevron from the military: worn vertically on the sleeve to signify
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rating
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< bra from quantum mechanics
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<> unequal e.g. Pascal
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> right chevron see "< left chevron"
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> ket from quantum mechanics
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@ snable-a from Danish; may translate as "trunk-a"
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@ trunk-a "trunk" = "elephant nose"
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@ strudel as in Austrian apple cake
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@ fetch from FORTH
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\ scan APL
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\ expand APL
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^ and from formal logic
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^ pointer from PASCAL
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^ upper-than cf. > and <
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_ gets some alternative representation of underscore resembles a
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backarrow
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_ dash as distinct from '-' == minus
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` execute from shell command substitution
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{} Tuborgs from advertizing for well-known Danish beverage
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{} curly chevr. see "< left chevron"
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{} hitchcocks from the old Alfred Hitchcock show, with the stylized profile
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of the man
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{} chipp. br. after Chippendale chairs
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| broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
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~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
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() nil LISP
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