On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Jose Alves de Castro wrote:
From dictionary.com :
<jargon> Another common metasyntactic variable; see foo. Hackers do *not* generally use this to mean FUBAR in either the slang or jargon sense.
According to a german correspondent, the term was coined during WW2 by allied troops who could not pronounce the german word "furchtbar" (horrible, terrible, awful).
Interesting :-) Because whenever I write foobar, I don't mean "horrible", "terrible" nor "awful" :-)
The Jargon File is a decent source of background information on what terms mean and where they may have come from, but when it branches out into speculation about what people do or don't mean, or think, or believe, or whatever, well, keep in mind that it is largely filtered through the prism of how Eric Raymond, self-appointed spokesperson & anthropoligist for all things Free Software, sees things.
More often than not, he is dead wrong.
In this case, the definition is basically correct -- most people are aware of the "foobar --> fubar --> 'f*cked up beyond all recognition" idea, but it isn't what they're alluding to in selecting "foo" and "bar" as variable names. But the idea that it is a corruption of "furchtbar" is grasping a little -- it may be true, but it isn't the widely accepted origin of the term.
More broadly though, when the Jargon File starts going off about "hackers think that..." -- that's when you stop reading and go on to the next entry, because everything that follows should more accurately be prefixed with "Eric Raymond thinks that..." and, well, why bother? :-)
-- Chris Devers
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