The meaning of foo?

jotti has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Can someone explain to me the the innermost meaning of the variable name foo? Where does it come from? What does it stand for?

Comment on The meaning of foo?

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Re: The meaning of foo? by Beatnik (Parson) on May 20, 2002 at 07:50 UTC
There's always RFC 3092. Greetz Beatnik ... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.	[reply]
Re: Re: The meaning of foo? by Popcorn Dave (Abbot) on May 20, 2002 at 20:12 UTC
Definition 3 in RFC 3092 is the one I've always heard. I was always amused in school reading foo and bar for variable names in the computer textbooks. ;-) Some people fall from grace. I prefer a running start...	[reply]
Re: The meaning of foo? by Biker (Priest) on May 20, 2002 at 07:42 UTC
Read this. ;-) Everything went worng, just as foreseen.	[reply]
Re: The meaning of foo? by talexb (Chancellor) on May 20, 2002 at 18:18 UTC
My pal Bob Gike always said the meaning of foo was `For Once Only`, implying that it was a temporary file or variable. For example, finding a `foo.tmp` file in your directory with a time/date stamp more than a few days old likely meant you could delete it immediately. --t. alex "Nyahhh (munch, munch) What's up, Doc?" --Bugs Bunny	[reply] [d/l] [select]