Co do cholery znaczy te Foo? Pojawia sie ono bardzo czesto w tutorialach na przyklad ale nie w slownikach do angielskiego. Czy to jest jakies slangowe slowo?

   foo /foo/

   1. interj. Term of disgust. 2. [very common] Used very generally as a
   sample name for absolutely anything, esp. programs and files (esp.
   scratch files). 3. First on the standard list of [5198]metasyntactic
   variables used in syntax examples. See also [5199]bar, [5200]baz,
   [5201]qux, [5202]quux, [5203]corge, [5204]grault, [5205]garply,
   [5206]waldo, [5207]fred, [5208]plugh, [5209]xyzzy, [5210]thud.

   The etymology of hackish `foo' is obscure. When used in connection
   with `bar' it is generally traced to the WWII-era Army slang acronym
   FUBAR (`Fucked Up Beyond All Repair'), later bowdlerized to
   [5211]foobar. (See also [5212]FUBAR.) It has been plausibly suggested
   that FUBAR was influenced by German `furchtbar' (terrible). It has
   also been reported out that 1960s computer manuals, in a usage
   influenced by Fortran's implicit-declaration feature, frequently used
   F00 (F followed by two zeros) in examples.

   However, the use of the word `foo' itself has more complicated
   antecedents, including a long history in comic strips and cartoons.
   The old "Smokey Stover" comic strips by Bill Holman often included the
   word `FOO', in particular on license plates of cars; allegedly, `FOO'
   and `BAR' also occurred in Walt Kelly's "Pogo" strips. In the 1938
   cartoon "The Daffy Doc", a very early version of Daffy Duck holds up a
   sign saying "SILENCE IS FOO!"; oddly, this seems to refer to some
   approving or positive affirmative use of foo. It has been suggested
   that this might be related to the Chinese word `fu' (sometimes
   transliterated `foo'), which can mean "happiness" when spoken with the
   proper tone (the lion-dog guardians flanking the steps of many Chinese
   restaurants are properly called "fu dogs").

   Paul Dickson's excellent book "Words" (Dell, 1982, ISBN 0-440-52260-7)
   traces "Foo" to an unspecified British naval magazine in 1946, quoting
   as follows: "Mr. Foo is a mysterious Second World War product, gifted
   with bitter omniscience and sarcasm."

   Other sources confirm that `FOO' was a semi-legendary subject of WWII
   British-army graffiti more-or-less equivalent to the American Kilroy.
   Where British troops went, the graffito "FOO was here" or something
   similar showed up. Several slang dictionaries aver that FOO probably
   came from Forward Observation Officer. In this connection, the later
   American military slang `foo fighters' is interesting; at least as far
   back as the 1950s, radar operators used it for the kind of mysterious
   or spurious trace that would later be called a UFO (the older term
   resurfaced in popular American usage in 1995 via the name of one of
   the better grunge-rock bands).

   Earlier versions of this entry suggested the possibility that hacker
   usage actually sprang from "FOO, Lampoons and Parody", the title of a
   comic book first issued in September 1958, a joint project of Charles
   and Robert Crumb. Though Robert Crumb (then in his mid-teens) later
   became one of the most important and influential artists in
   underground comics, this venture was hardly a success; indeed, the
   brothers later burned most of the existing copies in disgust. The
   title FOO was featured in large letters on the front cover. However,
   very few copies of this comic actually circulated, and students of
   Crumb's `oeuvre' have established that this title was a reference to
   the earlier Smokey Stover comics.

   An old-time member reports that in the 1959 "Dictionary of the TMRC
   Language", compiled at [5213]TMRC, there was an entry that went
   something like this:

     FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE PADME
     HUM." Our first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning.

   For more about the legendary foo counters, see [5214]TMRC. Almost the
   entire staff of what later became the MIT AI Lab was involved with
   TMRC, and probably picked the word up there.

   Very probably, hackish `foo' had no single origin and derives through
   all these channels from Yiddish `feh' and/or English `fooey'.

Hypertext Webster Gateway: "foo"
From Jargon File (4.2.0, 31 JAN 2000) (jargon)
foo /foo/ 1. interj. Term of disgust. 2. [very common] Used very generally
as a sample name for absolutely anything, esp. programs and files (esp.
scratch files). 3. First on the standard list of {metasyntactic variable}s
used in syntax examples. See also {bar}, {baz}, {qux}, {quux}, {corge},
{grault}, {garply}, {waldo}, {fred}, {plugh}, {xyzzy}, {thud}.
When `foo' is used in connection with `bar' it has generally traced to the
WWII-era Army slang acronym {FUBAR} (`Fucked Up Beyond All Repair'), later
modified to {foobar}. Early versions of the Jargon File interpreted this
change as a post-war bowdlerization, but it it now seems more likely that
FUBAR was itself a derivative of `foo' perhaps influenced by German
`furchtbar' (terrible) - `foobar' may actually have been the _original_
form.

For, it seems, the word `foo' itself had an immediate prewar history in
comic strips and cartoons. The earliest documented uses were in the "Smokey
Stover" comic strip popular in the 1930s, which frequently included the word
"foo". Bill Holman, the author of the strip, filled it with odd jokes and
personal contrivances, including other nonsense phrases such as "Notary
Sojac" abd "1506 nix nix". According to the Warner Brothers Cartoon
Companion (ttp://www.spumco.com/magazine/eowbcc/) Holman claimed to have
found the word "foo" on the bottom of a Chinese figurine. This is plausible;
Chinese statuettes often have apotropaic inscriptions, and this may have
been the Chinese word `fu' (sometimes transliterated `foo'), which can mean
"happiness" when spoken with the proper tone (the lion-dog guardians
flanking the steps of many Chinese restaurants are properly called "fu
dogs"). English speakers' reception of Holman's `foo' nonsense word was
undoubtedly influenced by Yiddish `feh' and English `fooey' and `fool'.

Holman's strip featured a firetruck called the Foomobile that rode on two
wheels. The comic strip was tremendously popular in the late 1930s, and
legend has it that a manufacturer in Indiana even produced an operable
version of Holman's Foomobile. According to the Encyclopedia of American
Comics, `Foo' fever swept the U.S., finding its way into popular songs and
generating over 500 `Foo Clubs.' The fad left `foo' references embedded in
popular culture (including a couple of appearances in Warner Brothers
cartoons of 1938-39) but with their origins rapidly forgotten.

One place they are known to have remained live is in the U.S. military
during the WWII years. In 1944-45, the term `foo fighters' was in use by
radar operators for the kind of mysterious or spurious trace that would
later be called a UFO (the older term resurfaced in popular American usage
in 1995 via the name of one of the better grunge-rock bands). Informants
connected the term to the Smokey Stover strip.

The U.S. and British militaries frequently swapped slang terms during the
war (see {kluge} and {kludge} for another important example) Period sources
reported that `FOO' became a semi-legendary subject of WWII British-army
graffiti more or less equivalent to the American Kilroy. Where British
troops went, the graffito "FOO was here" or something similar showed up.
Several slang dictionaries aver that FOO probably came from Forward
Observation Officer, but this (like the contemporaneous "FUBAR") was
probably a {backronym} . Forty years later, Paul Dickson's excellent book
"Words" (Dell, 1982, ISBN 0-440-52260-7) traced "Foo" to an unspecified
British naval magazine in 1946, quoting as follows: "Mr. Foo is a mysterious
Second World War product, gifted with bitter omniscience and sarcasm."

Earlier versions of this entry suggested the possibility that hacker usage
actually sprang from "FOO, Lampoons and Parody", the title of a comic book
first issued in September 1958, a joint project of Charles and Robert Crumb.
Though Robert Crumb (then in his mid-teens) later became one of the most
important and influential artists in underground comics, this venture was
hardly a success; indeed, the brothers later burned most of the existing
copies in disgust. The title FOO was featured in large letters on the front
cover. However, very few copies of this comic actually circulated, and
students of Crumb's `oeuvre' have established that this title was a
reference to the earlier Smokey Stover comics. The Crumbs may also have been
influenced by a short-lived Canadian parody magazine named `Foo' published
in 1951-52.

An old-time member reports that in the 1959 "Dictionary of the TMRC
Language", compiled at {TMRC}, there was an entry that went something like
this:

FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE PADME HUM." Our
first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning.

(For more about the legendary foo counters, see {TMRC}.) This definition
used Bill Holman's nonsense word, only then two decades old and demonstrably
still live in popular culture and slang, to a {ha ha only serious} analogy
with esoteric Tibetan Buddhism. Today's hackers would find it difficulty to
resist elaborating a joke like that, and it would be hard to believe 1959's
were any less susceptible. Almost the entire staff of what later became the
MIT AI Lab was involved with TMRC, and the word spread from there.

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) (foldoc)
foo
/foo/ A sample name for absolutely anything, especially programs and files
(especially scratch files). First on the standard list of {metasyntactic
variable}s used in syntax examples. See also {bar}, {baz}, {qux}, {quux},
{corge}, {grault}, {garply}, {waldo}, {fred}, {plugh}, {xyzzy}, {thud}.

The etymology of "foo" is obscure. When used in connection with "bar" it is
generally traced to the WWII-era Army slang acronym {FUBAR}, later
bowdlerised to {foobar}.

However, the use of the word "foo" itself has more complicated antecedents,
including a long history in comic strips and cartoons.

"FOO" often appeared in the "Smokey Stover" comic strip by Bill Holman. This
surrealist strip about a fireman appeared in various American comics
including "Everybody's" between about 1930 and 1952. FOO was often included
on licence plates of cars and in nonsense sayings in the background of some
frames such as "He who foos last foos best" or "Many smoke but foo men
chew".

Allegedly, "FOO" and "BAR" also occurred in Walt Kelly's "Pogo" strips. In
the 1938 cartoon "The Daffy Doc", a very early version of Daffy Duck holds
up a sign saying "SILENCE IS FOO!". Oddly, this seems to refer to some
approving or positive affirmative use of foo. It has been suggested that
this might be related to the Chinese word "fu" (sometimes transliterated
"foo"), which can mean "happiness" when spoken with the proper tone (the
lion-dog guardians flanking the steps of many Chinese restaurants are
properly called "fu dogs").

Earlier versions of this entry suggested the possibility that hacker usage
actually sprang from "FOO, Lampoons and Parody", the title of a comic book
first issued in September 1958, a joint project of Charles and Robert Crumb.
Though Robert Crumb (then in his mid-teens) later became one of the most
important and influential artists in underground comics, this venture was
hardly a success; indeed, the brothers later burned most of the existing
copies in disgust. The title FOO was featured in large letters on the front
cover. However, very few copies of this comic actually circulated, and
students of Crumb's "oeuvre" have established that this title was a
reference to the earlier Smokey Stover comics.

An old-time member reports that in the 1959 "Dictionary of the TMRC
Language", compiled at {TMRC} there was an entry that went something like
this:

FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE PADME HUM." Our
first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning.

For more about the legendary foo counters, see {TMRC}. Almost the entire
staff of what became the {MIT} {AI LAB} was involved with TMRC, and probably
picked the word up there.

Very probably, hackish "foo" had no single origin and derives through all
these channels from Yiddish "feh" and/or English "fooey".

(04 Oct 1994)