4 ms·

To address something a commenter said I'd just like to point out that whatever Linus may think, a "git" in British slang is an unpleasant person, not a stupid p

To address something a commenter said I'd just like to point out that whatever Linus may think, a "git" in British slang is an unpleasant person, not a stupid person.

RyanZAG 13y ago
From Wikipedia > Torvalds has quipped about the name git, which is British English slang roughly equivalent to "unpleasant person". Torvalds said: "I'm an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First 'Linux', now 'git'." The man page describes git as "the stupid content tracker".
- Myrmornis 13y ago
  Oops ok, sorry Linus! I didn't mean to suggest that you had applied "git" inaccurately to yourself. I guess it's Merriam-Webster that is one source of the incorrect definition. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/git http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/git
  - Myrmornis 13y ago
    And the downvotes are because...the weak attempt at humor I suppose? HN moderators -- a useful feature would be being able to annotate a downvote with a reason, so that commenters can learn where they erred. The Merriam-Webster reference is pertinent in a subthread which is about the meaning of the word "git" (yes, not germane to the article, but to criticize that you would downvote the comment at the root of the subthread.) So all these downvotes for one good-natured sentence?
- bch 13y ago
  I feel this description is Linus backtracking, where the original target of the "git" label was in fact Andrew Tridgell, who was at the center of the Linux/bitkeeper reverse engineering drama [0]. [0] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/14/torvalds_attacks_tridgell/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/14/torvalds_attacks_tri...
rm445 13y ago
Is it not a corruption of the word 'get', meaning bastard/illegitimate child? As such it's more of a general insult than anything in particular.
- noir_lord 13y ago
  I'm English and 'get' and 'git' are used in different contexts. "This job will be a complete git to do" and "He's always been a bit of an old git" vs "He is a complete get" As for your question, the only source for git been a corruption of get I could find is a wikipedia post which has a big [citation needed] next to it and the sentence is incomplete.
  - twic 13y ago
    I'm English, and i thought "get" was just some weird provincial pronunciation of "git". As for etymology, the OED thinks it came from "get": http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/78536?redirectedFrom=git#eid http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/78536?redirectedFrom=git#eid

To address something a commenter said I'd just like to point out that whatever Linus may think, a "git" in British slang is an unpleasant person, not a stupid person.

RyanZAG 13y ago

From Wikipedia > Torvalds has quipped about the name git, which is British English slang roughly equivalent to "unpleasant person". Torvalds said: "I'm an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First 'Linux', now 'git'." The man page describes git as "the stupid content tracker".

Myrmornis 13y ago
Oops ok, sorry Linus! I didn't mean to suggest that you had applied "git" inaccurately to yourself. I guess it's Merriam-Webster that is one source of the incorrect definition. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/git http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/git
- Myrmornis 13y ago
  And the downvotes are because...the weak attempt at humor I suppose? HN moderators -- a useful feature would be being able to annotate a downvote with a reason, so that commenters can learn where they erred. The Merriam-Webster reference is pertinent in a subthread which is about the meaning of the word "git" (yes, not germane to the article, but to criticize that you would downvote the comment at the root of the subthread.) So all these downvotes for one good-natured sentence?
bch 13y ago
I feel this description is Linus backtracking, where the original target of the "git" label was in fact Andrew Tridgell, who was at the center of the Linux/bitkeeper reverse engineering drama [0]. [0] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/14/torvalds_attacks_tridgell/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/14/torvalds_attacks_tri...

rm445 13y ago

Is it not a corruption of the word 'get', meaning bastard/illegitimate child? As such it's more of a general insult than anything in particular.

noir_lord 13y ago
I'm English and 'get' and 'git' are used in different contexts. "This job will be a complete git to do" and "He's always been a bit of an old git" vs "He is a complete get" As for your question, the only source for git been a corruption of get I could find is a wikipedia post which has a big [citation needed] next to it and the sentence is incomplete.
- twic 13y ago
  I'm English, and i thought "get" was just some weird provincial pronunciation of "git". As for etymology, the OED thinks it came from "get": http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/78536?redirectedFrom=git#eid http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/78536?redirectedFrom=git#eid