biff
from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
biff
/bif/, vt.
[now rare] To notify someone of incoming mail. From the BSD utility
biff(1), which was in turn named after a friendly dog who used to
chase frisbees in the halls at UCB while 4.2BSD was in development.
There was a legend that it had a habit of barking whenever the mailman
came, but the author of biff says this is not true. No relation to
{B1FF}.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
BIFF
B1FF
/bif/ (Or "B1FF", from {Usenet}) The most famous {pseudo}, and
the prototypical {newbie}. Articles from BIFF are
characterised by all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally
with bangs, typos, "cute" misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD
OLD BIFF CUZ HE'S A K00L DOOD AN HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ
IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of
fragments of {chat} abbreviations, a long {sig block}
(sometimes even a {doubled sig}), and unbounded naivete. BIFF
posts articles using his elder brother's VIC-20. BIFF's
location is a mystery, as his articles appear to come from a
variety of sites. However, {BITNET} seems to be the most
frequent origin. The theory that BIFF is a denizen of BITNET
is supported by BIFF's (unfortunately invalid) {electronic
mail address}: <[email protected]>.
[1993: Now It Can Be Told! My spies inform me that BIFF was
originally created by Joe Talmadge <[email protected]>, also the
author of the infamous and much-plagiarised "Flamer's Bible".
The BIFF filter he wrote was later passed to Richard Sexton,
who posted BIFFisms much more widely. Versions have since
been posted for the amusement of the net at large. - ESR]
[{Jargon File}]
(1997-09-22)
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
72 Moby Thesaurus words for "biff":
bang, bash, bat, beating, belt, blow, bonk, bop, catch, chop, clap,
clip, clobber, clout, clump, coldcock, crack, cut, dash, deal,
deal a blow, deck, dig, ding, dint, drub, drubbing, drumming,
fetch, fetch a blow, fusillade, hit, hit a clip, jab, knock,
knock cold, knock down, knock out, let have it, lick, nail, paste,
pelt, plunk, poke, pound, punch, rap, slam, slog, slosh, slug,
smack, smash, smite, snap, soak, sock, strike, strike at, stroke,
swat, swing, swipe, tattoo, thump, thwack, wallop, whack, wham,
whop, yerk
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