foo
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Noun[edit]
foo (plural foos)
- (historical, obsolete) Alternative form of fu: an administrative subdivision of imperial China; the capital of such divisions.
Etymology 2[edit]
From Chinese 福 (fú, “fortunate; prosperity, good luck”), via its use as 福星 (Fúxīng, “Jupiter”) in Chinese statues of the Three Lucky Stars, picked up from c. 1935 as a nonsense word in Bill Holman's Smokey Stover comic strip,[1][2][3] whence it was picked up by Pogo, Looney Tunes, and others. Used by Jack Speer as the name of a mock god of mimeography in the 1930s.
Popularized in computing contexts by the Tech Model Railroad Club's 1959 Dictionary of the TMRC Language, which incorporated it into a parody of the Hindu chant om mani padme hum,[1] possibly under the influence of WWII military slang FUBAR, which had been repopularized by Joseph Heller's Catch-22.
Noun[edit]
foo (uncountable)
- (programming) A metasyntactic variable used to represent an unspecified entity. If part of a series of such entities, it is often the first in the series, and followed immediately by bar.
- Suppose we have two objects, foo and bar.
- (fandom slang) Alternative letter-case form of Foo (“placeholder god”)
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Etymology 3[edit]
Interjection[edit]
foo
- Expression of disappointment or disgust.
- Oh foo – the cake burnt!
Synonyms[edit]
Etymology 4[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Noun[edit]
foo (plural foos)
- (slang) Pronunciation spelling of fool.
- 2020, J. Lewis Johnson, A Dark Night in the Fieldhouse:
- [page 10:] "I knew you'd be scared," Reggie laughed. "What are you doin', foo? You must be crazy. You don't scare me." "Then why did you almost fall out of that chair? I scare everyone."
[page 38:] "This is coo," said Fred. "It's almost like being there." "We are there, foo!" said Reggie as the boys slapped palms.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Eric S[teven] Raymond, editor (2003 December 29), “foo”, in The Jargon File, version 4.4.7.
- ^ "The History of Bill Holman", Smokey-Stover.com, Smokey Stover LLC – article by nephew of Bill Holman
- ^ "Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion"
- rfc:3092, Etymology of "Foo", Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
See also[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From the oblique stem of Old English ġefāh.
Noun[edit]
foo (plural foos)
- Alternative form of fo
Etymology 2[edit]
From Old English fā, variant of fāh.
Adjective[edit]
foo
- Alternative form of fo
Adverb[edit]
foo
- Alternative form of fo
Murui Huitoto[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Adverb[edit]
foo
References[edit]
- Shirley Burtch (1983) Diccionario Huitoto Murui (Tomo I) (Linguistica Peruana No. 20)[1] (in Spanish), Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 91
- Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017) A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.[2], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page 145
Tetum[edit]
Verb[edit]
foo
- to stink
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/uː
- Rhymes:English/uː/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English terms derived from Mandarin
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with historical senses
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms derived from Chinese
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Programming
- English terms with usage examples
- English fandom slang
- English interjections
- English slang
- English pronunciation spellings
- English terms with quotations
- English minced oaths
- English placeholder terms
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English adjectives
- Middle English adverbs
- Murui Huitoto terms with IPA pronunciation
- Murui Huitoto lemmas
- Murui Huitoto adverbs
- Tetum lemmas
- Tetum verbs