2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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Bad Thing
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. [very common; always pronounced as if capitalized. Orig. fr. the 1930
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Sellar Yeatman parody of British history 1066 And All That , but
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well-established among hackers in the U.S. as well.] Something that can't
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possibly result in improvement of the subject. This term is always
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capitalized, as in Replacing all of the DSL links with bicycle couriers
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would be a Bad Thing. Oppose Good Thing. British correspondents confirm that
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Bad Thing and Good Thing (and prob. therefore Right Thing and Wrong Thing )
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come from the book referenced in the etymology, which discusses rulers who
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were Good Kings but Bad Things. This has apparently created a mainstream
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idiom on the British side of the pond. It is very common among American
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hackers, but not in mainstream usage in the U.S. Compare Bad and Wrong.
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