$DEITY

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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]

Noun[edit]

$DEITY (plural $DEITIES)

  1. (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!
    • 2000, 2:1, “Re: Malloy digest”, in comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy[3] (Usenet):
      For $DEITY's sake, stop `digesting' each other and advocate something useful!
    • 2015 March 30, Daniel James, “Re: [anti-topic] rant, idiots should probably avoid”, in comp.mobile.android[4] (Usenet):
      Thank $DEITIES for Open Source!

Usage notes[edit]

Often substitutes for god/God in set phrases like thank God or for God's sake.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Evan Goer (2013), “Thinking of Documentation as Code”, in YouTube[1], YUI Library, published 2014, at timestamp 13:41

Further reading[edit]