$DEITY
See also: deity
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From the syntax of environment variables in Unix shells, and the practice of putting paths to user's software of choice in generically named variables like EDITOR
or PAGER
.
Pronunciation edit
- same as deity, or as dollar sign deity[1] (see the respective entries)
Noun edit
$DEITY (plural $DEITIES)
- (computing slang, humorous) A generic deity; the listener's or reader's god of choice.
- 2000, Justin Warren, “Re: newbie learns an arcane command”, in alt.sysadmin.recovery[2] (Usenet):
- No real init that actually works the way it's supposed to. No snoop. No truss/strace. The whole stupid application install method with it's[sic] /opt /etc/opt/, /var/opt, /tmp/var/etc/opt $DEITY dammit!
Usage notes edit
Often substitutes for god/God in set phrases like thank God or for God's sake.
References edit
Further reading edit
- Jargon File, Chapter 5. Hacker Writing Style