alt

/awlt/ 1. n. The alt shift key on an IBM PC or clone keyboard; see bucky
bits , sense 2  (though typical PC usage does not simply set the 0200 bit).
2. n. The option key on a Macintosh; use of this term usually reveals that
the speaker hacked PCs before coming to the Mac (see also feature key ,
which is sometimes incorrectly called alt ). 3. The alt hierarchy on Usenet,
the tree of newsgroups created by users without a formal vote and approval
procedure. There is a myth, not entirely implausible, that alt is acronymic
for anarchists, lunatics, and terrorists ; but in fact it is simply short
for alternative. 4. n.,obs.  Rare alternate name for the ASCII ESC character
(ASCII 0011011).  This use, derives, with the alt key itself, from archaic
PDP-10 operating systems, especially ITS.

