English Explanatory Dictionary

gweep

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To work on a minicomputer late at night.
noun
  1. A nighttime hacker on early minicomputers.

Pronunciation

/ɡwiːp/ En-au-gweep.ogg

Word forms

gweep gweeps gweeping gweeped

Etymology

Purportedly coined by hackers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in 1977 and still in use through 1991. However, this entry did not appear in the Jargon File until the 1993 version 3.0.0, an edition which prompted controversy about Eric Raymond's stewardship and attention to proper attestation. The reliability of this particular addition is unclear; it was likely in use at WPI in 1991 as reported, but may have been specific to a much smaller subcommunity, particularly as it escaped mention in earlier editions of the Jargon File, which did capture other slang from WPI.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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