24 lines
3.4 KiB
HTML
24 lines
3.4 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>-oid</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="../O.html" title="O"/><link rel="previous" href="ogg.html" title="ogg"/><link rel="next" href="old-fart.html" title="old fart"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">-oid</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ogg.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">O</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="old-fart.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="suffix-oid"/><dt xmlns="" id="suffix-oid"><b>-oid</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">suff.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [from Greek suffix -oid = <span class="firstterm">in the image
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of</span>] </p></dd><dd><p> 1. Used as in mainstream slang English to indicate a poor imitation,
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a counterfeit, or some otherwise slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will
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happily use it with all sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that wouldn't
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keep company with it in mainstream English. For example, “<span class="quote">He's a
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nerdoid</span>” means that he superficially resembles a nerd but can't make
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the grade; a <span class="firstterm">modemoid</span> might be a
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300-baud box (Real Modems run at 28.8 or up); a <span class="firstterm">computeroid</span> might be any
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<a href="../B/bitty-box.html"><i class="glossterm">bitty box</i></a>. The word <span class="firstterm">keyboid</span>
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could be used to describe a <a href="../C/chiclet-keyboard.html"><i class="glossterm">chiclet keyboard</i></a>, but
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would have to be written; spoken, it would confuse the listener as to the
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speaker's city of origin. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. More specifically, an indicator for ‘resembling an
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android’ which in the past has been confined to science-fiction fans
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and hackers. It too has recently (in 1991) started to go mainstream (most
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notably in the term ‘trendoid’ for victims of terminal
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hipness). This is probably traceable to the popularization of the term
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<a href="../D/droid.html"><i class="glossterm">droid</i></a> in <i class="citetitle">Star Wars</i> and its
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sequels. (See also <a href="../W/windoid.html"><i class="glossterm">windoid</i></a>.)</p></dd><dd><p>Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at
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least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have probably been
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making <i class="wordasword">‘-oid</i>’ jargon for almost that
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long [though GLS and I can personally confirm only that they were already
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common in the mid-1970s —ESR].</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ogg.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../O.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="old-fart.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">ogg </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> old fart</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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