foo

foo
 /foo/

   1. interj. Term of disgust.

   2. [very common] Used very generally as a sample name for absolutely
   anything, esp. programs and files (esp. scratch files).

   3. First on the standard list of {metasyntactic variable}s used in
   syntax examples. See also {bar}, {baz}, {qux}, {quux}, {garply},
   {waldo}, {fred}, {plugh}, {xyzzy}, {thud}.

   When `foo' is used in connection with `bar' it has generally traced to
   the WWII-era Army slang acronym {FUBAR} (`Fucked Up Beyond All Repair'
   or `Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition'), later modified to {foobar}.
   Early versions of the Jargon File interpreted this change as a
   post-war bowdlerization, but it it now seems more likely that FUBAR
   was itself a derivative of `foo' perhaps influenced by German
   furchtbar (terrible) -- `foobar' may actually have been the original
   form.

   For, it seems, the word `foo' itself had an immediate prewar history
   in comic strips and cartoons. The earliest documented uses were in the
   Smokey Stover comic strip published from about 1930 to about 1952.
   Bill Holman, the author of the strip, filled it with odd jokes and
   personal contrivances, including other nonsense phrases such as
   "Notary Sojac" and "1506 nix nix". The word "foo" frequently appeared
   on license plates of cars, in nonsense sayings in the background of
   some frames (such as "He who foos last foos best" or "Many smoke but
   foo men chew"), and Holman had Smokey say "Where there's foo, there's
   fire".

   According to the Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion Holman claimed to
   have found the word "foo" on the bottom of a Chinese figurine. This is
   plausible; Chinese statuettes often have apotropaic inscriptions, and
   this one was almost certainly the Mandarin Chinese word fu (sometimes
   transliterated foo), which can mean "happiness" or "prosperity" when
   spoken with the rising tone (the lion-dog guardians flanking the steps
   of many Chinese restaurants are properly called "fu dogs"). English
   speakers' reception of Holman's `foo' nonsense word was undoubtedly
   influenced by Yiddish `feh' and English `fooey' and `fool'.

   Holman's strip featured a firetruck called the Foomobile that rode on
   two wheels. The comic strip was tremendously popular in the late
   1930s, and legend has it that a manufacturer in Indiana even produced
   an operable version of Holman's Foomobile. According to the
   Encyclopedia of American Comics, `Foo' fever swept the U.S., finding
   its way into popular songs and generating over 500 `Foo Clubs.' The
   fad left `foo' references embedded in popular culture (including a
   couple of appearances in Warner Brothers cartoons of 1938-39; notably
   in Robert Clampett's "Daffy Doc" of 1938, in which a very early
   version of Daffy Duck holds up a sign saying "SILENCE IS FOO!") When
   the fad faded, the origin of "foo" was forgotten.

   One place "foo" is known to have remained live is in the U.S. military
   during the WWII years. In 1944-45, the term `foo fighters' was in use
   by radar operators for the kind of mysterious or spurious trace that
   would later be called a UFO (the older term resurfaced in popular
   American usage in 1995 via the name of one of the better grunge-rock
   bands). Because informants connected the term directly to the Smokey
   Stover strip, the folk etymology that connects it to French "feu"
   (fire) can be gently dismissed.

   The U.S. and British militaries frequently swapped slang terms during
   the war (see {kluge} and {kludge} for another important example)
   Period sources reported that `FOO' became a semi-legendary subject of
   WWII British-army graffiti more or less equivalent to the American
   Kilroy. Where British troops went, the graffito "FOO was here" or
   something similar showed up. Several slang dictionaries aver that FOO
   probably came from Forward Observation Officer, but this (like the
   contemporaneous "FUBAR") was probably a {backronym} . Forty years
   later, Paul Dickson's excellent book "Words" (Dell, 1982, ISBN
   0-440-52260-7) traced "Foo" to an unspecified British naval magazine
   in 1946, quoting as follows: "Mr. Foo is a mysterious Second World War
   product, gifted with bitter omniscience and sarcasm."

   Earlier versions of this entry suggested the possibility that hacker
   usage actually sprang from FOO, Lampoons and Parody, the title of a
   comic book first issued in September 1958, a joint project of Charles
   and Robert Crumb. Though Robert Crumb (then in his mid-teens) later
   became one of the most important and influential artists in
   underground comics, this venture was hardly a success; indeed, the
   brothers later burned most of the existing copies in disgust. The
   title FOO was featured in large letters on the front cover. However,
   very few copies of this comic actually circulated, and students of
   Crumb's oeuvre have established that this title was a reference to the
   earlier Smokey Stover comics. The Crumbs may also have been influenced
   by a short-lived Canadian parody magazine named `Foo' published in
   1951-52.

   An old-time member reports that in the 1959 Dictionary of the TMRC
   Language, compiled at {TMRC}, there was an entry that went something
   like this:

  FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE PADME
  HUM." Our first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning.

   (For more about the legendary foo counters, see {TMRC}.) This
   definition used Bill Holman's nonsense word, then only two decades old
   and demonstrably still live in popular culture and slang, to a {ha ha
   only serious} analogy with esoteric Tibetan Buddhism. Today's hackers
   would find it difficult to resist elaborating a joke like that, and it
   is not likely 1959's were any less susceptible. Almost the entire
   staff of what later became the MIT AI Lab was involved with TMRC, and
   the word spread from there.
    

foo

   <jargon> /foo/ A sample name for absolutely anything,
   especially programs and files (especially {scratch files}).
   First on the standard list of {metasyntactic variables} used
   in {syntax} examples.  See also {bar}, {baz}, {qux}, {quux},
   {corge}, {grault}, {garply}, {waldo}, {fred}, {plugh},
   {xyzzy}, {thud}.

   The etymology of "foo" is obscure.  When used in connection
   with "bar" it is generally traced to the WWII-era Army slang
   acronym {FUBAR}, later bowdlerised to {foobar}.

   However, the use of the word "foo" itself has more complicated
   antecedents, including a long history in comic strips and
   cartoons.

   "FOO" often appeared in the "Smokey Stover" comic strip by
   Bill Holman.  This surrealist strip about a fireman appeared
   in various American comics including "Everybody's" between
   about 1930 and 1952.  FOO was often included on licence plates
   of cars and in nonsense sayings in the background of some
   frames such as "He who foos last foos best" or "Many smoke but
   foo men chew".

   Allegedly, "FOO" and "BAR" also occurred in Walt Kelly's
   "Pogo" strips.  In the 1938 cartoon "The Daffy Doc", a very
   early version of Daffy Duck holds up a sign saying "SILENCE IS
   FOO!".  Oddly, this seems to refer to some approving or
   positive affirmative use of foo.  It has been suggested that
   this might be related to the Chinese word "fu" (sometimes
   transliterated "foo"), which can mean "happiness" when spoken
   with the proper tone (the lion-dog guardians flanking the
   steps of many Chinese restaurants are properly called "fu
   dogs").

   Earlier versions of this entry suggested the possibility that
   hacker usage actually sprang from "FOO, Lampoons and Parody",
   the title of a comic book first issued in September 1958, a
   joint project of Charles and Robert Crumb.  Though Robert
   Crumb (then in his mid-teens) later became one of the most
   important and influential artists in underground comics, this
   venture was hardly a success; indeed, the brothers later
   burned most of the existing copies in disgust.  The title FOO
   was featured in large letters on the front cover.  However,
   very few copies of this comic actually circulated, and
   students of Crumb's "oeuvre" have established that this title
   was a reference to the earlier Smokey Stover comics.

   An old-time member reports that in the 1959 "Dictionary of the
   TMRC Language", compiled at {TMRC} there was an entry that
   went something like this:

   FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE
   PADME HUM."  Our first obligation is to keep the foo counters
   turning.

   For more about the legendary foo counters, see {TMRC}.  Almost
   the entire staff of what became the {MIT} {AI LAB} was
   involved with TMRC, and probably picked the word up there.

   Another correspondant cites the nautical construction
   "foo-foo" (or "poo-poo"), used to refer to something
   effeminate or some technical thing whose name has been
   forgotten, e.g. "foo-foo box", "foo-foo valve".  This was
   common on ships by the early nineteenth century.

   Very probably, hackish "foo" had no single origin and derives
   through all these channels from Yiddish "feh" and/or English
   "fooey".

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1998-04-16)
    

FOO
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