16 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
16 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Bad Thing</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../B.html" title="B"/><link rel="previous" href="Bad-and-Wrong.html" title="Bad and Wrong"/><link rel="next" href="bag-on-the-side.html" title="bag on the side"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Bad Thing</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Bad-and-Wrong.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">B</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="bag-on-the-side.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="Bad-Thing"/><dt xmlns="" id="Bad-Thing"><b>Bad Thing</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [very common; always pronounced as if capitalized. Orig. fr. the
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1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody of British history <i class="citetitle">1066 And All
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That</i>, but well-established among hackers in the U.S. as well.]
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Something that can't possibly result in improvement of the subject. This
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term is always capitalized, as in “<span class="quote">Replacing all of the DSL links
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with bicycle couriers would be a Bad Thing</span>”. Oppose
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<a href="../G/Good-Thing.html"><i class="glossterm">Good Thing</i></a>. British correspondents confirm that
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<a href="Bad-Thing.html"><i class="glossterm">Bad Thing</i></a> and <a href="../G/Good-Thing.html"><i class="glossterm">Good Thing</i></a>
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(and prob. therefore <a href="../R/Right-Thing.html"><i class="glossterm">Right Thing</i></a> and
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<a href="../W/Wrong-Thing.html"><i class="glossterm">Wrong Thing</i></a>) come from the book referenced in the
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etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad Things.
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This has apparently created a mainstream idiom on the British side of the
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pond. It is very common among American hackers, but not in mainstream
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usage in the U.S. Compare <a href="Bad-and-Wrong.html"><i class="glossterm">Bad and Wrong</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Bad-and-Wrong.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../B.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="bag-on-the-side.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Bad and Wrong </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> bag on the side</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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