fortune cookie
n 1: thin folded wafer containing a maxim on a slip of paper
fortune cookie
n.
[WAITS, via Unix; common] A random quote, item of trivia, joke, or
maxim printed to the user's tty at login time or (less commonly) at
logout time. Items from this lexicon have often been used as fortune
cookies. See {cookie file}.
fortune cookie
({WAITS}, via the {Unix} "fortune" program) A quotation, item
of trivia, joke, or maxim selected at random from a collection
(the "{cookie file}") and printed to the user's tty at login
time or (less commonly) at logout time.
There was a fortune program on {TOPS-20}.
[First program?]
[{Jargon File}]
(1995-02-14)