Define the word -oid"-oid" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
-oid \-oid\ (-oid) suff. [Gr. ?, fr. e'i^dos form, akin to ? to
see, and E. wit: cf. F. -o["i]de, L. -o["i]des.]
A suffix or combining form meaning like, resembling, in the
form of; as in anthropoid, asteroid, spheroid.
[1913 Webster]
"oid" vera "Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002)"
OID
Object IDentifier (OSI)
"-oid" jargon "Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)"
-oid suff. [from Greek suffix -oid = `in the image of'] 1. Used as in
mainstream slang English to indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or
some otherwise slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will happily use it
with all sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that wouldn't keep company
with it in mainstream English. For example, "He's a nerdoid" means that
he superficially resembles a nerd but can't make the grade; a `modemoid'
might be a 300-baud box (Real Modems run at 28.8 or up); a `computeroid'
might be any bitty box. The word `keyboid' could be used to describe a
chiclet keyboard, but would have to be written; spoken, it would
confuse the listener as to the speaker's city of origin. 2. More
specifically, an indicator for `resembling an android' which in the past
has been confined to science-fiction fans and hackers. It too has
recently (in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in the term
`trendoid' for victims of terminal hipness). This is probably traceable
to the popularization of the term droid in "Star Wars" and its
sequels. (See also windoid.)
Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at
least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have probably
been making `-oid' jargon for almost that long [though GLS and I can
personally confirm only that they were already common in the mid-1970s
--ESR].
"oid" foldoc "The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)"
OID
object identifier
"oid" foldoc "The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)"
-oid
(from "android") A suffix used as in mainstream
English to indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or some
otherwise slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will happily
use it with all sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that
wouldn't keep company with it in mainstream English. For
example, "He's a nerdoid" means that he superficially
resembles a nerd but can't make the grade; a "modemoid" might
be a 300-baud modem (Real Modems run at 144000 or up); a
"computeroid" might be any bitty box.
"-oid" can also mean "resembling an android", which was once
confined to science-fiction fans and hackers. It too has
recently (in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in
the term "trendoid" for victims of terminal hipness). This is
probably traceable to the popularisation of the term droid
in "Star Wars" and its sequels.
Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for
at least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have
probably been making "-oid" jargon for almost that long
(though GLS and ESR can personally confirm only that they
were already common in the mid-1970s).
[Jargon File]
(1999-07-10)
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