"rot"?? (Re: "system()" system call (on comp.lang.c))

[Jerry B. Altzman]

In article <3901 at buengc.BU.EDU> bph at buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes:
>
>This gag is older than Maxwell's whiskers, but where does the use
>of "rot" to mean "curl" come from?
>

It's a mostly European convention, as far as I've been taught. It comes
from the same idea as "curl": the "rotational" sense of it. I'd imagine
that in German or French, the closest translation of "curl" is something
beginning with "rot"

Of course, it could also have been used by Gibbs :-)

>I've never seen that before.

I believe you can find it in older European (untranslated) journals...

>				--Blair
>				  "There was a time when I could
>				   have said such a thing about
>				   Kim Basinger.  Viva educacion!! :-)"
>				   

I don't speak for Columbia or Nevis, and neither of them speak for me.

//jerry

-- 
jerry altzman	"We've got to get in to get out"         	 212 854 3538
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