Cool Jargon of the Day

Serving Hacker Jargon to the Internet since Jan 1995.

magic /adj./ 1. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain; compare automagically and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." "TTY echoing is controlled by a large number of magic bits." "This routine magically computes the parity of an 8-bit byte in three instructions." 2. Characteristic of something that works although no one really understands why (this is especially called black magic). 3. [Stanford] A feature not generally publicized that allows something otherwise impossible, or a feature formerly in that category but now unveiled. Compare black magic, wizardly, deep magic, heavy wizardry.

Cool Jargon changes every 00:00 GMT. Please come back often.

The Best InterNet Reference Desk

Search by keywords:

Buy the book, The New Hacker's Dictionary,

Paperback, Hardcover.

This page is maintained by
Stephen Jazdzewski (Steve@Jazd.com) and
Charles Jazdzewski (Chuck@Jazd.com) Page Awards

Back to ADB.Net