<data> A named value or relationship that exists for some or
	all {instances} of some {entity} and is directly associated
	with that instance.

	Examples include the {href} attribute of an {HTML} {anchor}
	element, the columns of a database table considered as
	attributes of each row, and the {members} ({properties} and
	{methods} of an {object} in {OOP}.  This contrasts with the
	contents of some kind of container (e.g. an array), which are
	typically not named.  The contents of an {associative array},
	though they might be considered to be named by their key
	values, are not normally thought of as attributes.

	(2001-02-04)

<jargon> /foo/ A sample name for absolutely anything,
	especially programs and files (especially {scratch files}).
	First on the standard list of {metasyntactic variables} 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.

	Another correspondant cites the nautical construction
	"foo-foo" (or "poo-poo"), used to refer to something
	effeminate or some technical thing whose name has been
	forgotten, e.g. "foo-foo box", "foo-foo valve".  This was
	common on ships by the early nineteenth century.

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

	[{Jargon File}]

	(1998-04-16)