wheel bit

wheel bit
 n.

   A privilege bit that allows the possessor to perform some restricted
   operation on a timesharing system, such as read or write any file on
   the system regardless of protections, change or look at any address in
   the running monitor, crash or reload the system, and kill or create
   jobs and user accounts. The term was invented on the TENEX operating
   system, and carried over to TOPS-20, XEROX-IFS, and others. The state
   of being in a privileged logon is sometimes called wheel mode. This
   term entered the Unix culture from TWENEX in the mid-1980s and has
   been gaining popularity there (esp. at university sites). See also
   {root}.
    

wheel bit

   A privilege bit that allows the possessor to perform some
   restricted operation on a {time-sharing} system, such as read
   or write any file on the system regardless of protections,
   change or look at any address in the running monitor, crash or
   reload the system, and kill or create jobs and user accounts.
   The term was invented on the TENEX operating system, and
   carried over to TOPS-20, XEROX-IFS, and others.  The state of
   being in a privileged logon is sometimes called "wheel mode".
   This term entered the Unix culture from TWENEX in the
   mid-1980s and has been gaining popularity there (especially at
   university sites).  See also {root}.