foo

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Mandarin ().

Noun[edit]

foo (plural foos)

  1. (historical, obsolete) Alternative form of fu: an administrative subdivision of imperial China; the capital of such divisions.

Etymology 2[edit]

foo is presumably based on the fu character (fú, 福)
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From Chinese (, 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)

  1. (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.
  2. (fandom slang) Alternative letter-case form of Foo (placeholder god)
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

A minced form of fuck.

Interjection[edit]

foo

  1. Expression of disappointment or disgust.
    Oh foo – the cake burnt!
Synonyms[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

foo (plural foos)

  1. (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. 1.0 1.1 Eric S[teven] Raymond, editor (29 December 2003), “foo”, in The Jargon File, version 4.4.7.
  2. ^ "The History of Bill Holman", Smokey-Stover.com, Smokey Stover LLC – article by nephew of Bill Holman
  3. ^ "Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion"

See also[edit]

Multiword terms containing "foo" (probably unrelated to the above etymologies)

Anagrams[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From the oblique stem of Old English ġefāh.

Noun[edit]

foo (plural foos)

  1. Alternative form of fo

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old English , variant of fāh.

Adjective[edit]

foo

  1. Alternative form of fo

Adverb[edit]

foo

  1. Alternative form of fo

Murui Huitoto[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): [ˈɸɔː]
  • Hyphenation: foo

Adverb[edit]

foo

  1. in, inside

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

  1. to stink