Pip definition

<acronym>

<tool> Peripheral Interchange Program.

A program on CP/M, RSX-11, RSTS/E, TOPS-10, and OS/8 (derived from a utility on the PDP-6) that was used for file copying (and in OS/8 and RT-11 for just about every other file operation you might want to do). It is said that when the program was written, during the development of the PDP-6 in 1963, it was called ATLATL ("Anything, Lord, to Anything, Lord"; this played on the Nahuatl word "atlatl" for a spear-thrower, with connotations of utility and primitivity that were no doubt quite intentional).

See also: BLT, dd, cat.

(01 Mar 1995)

A contagious disease of fowls, characterised by hoarseness, discharge from the nostrils and eyes, and an accumulation of mucus in the mouth, forming a "scale" on the tongue. By some the term pip is restricted to this last symptom, the disease being called roup by them.

Origin: OE. Pippe, D. Pip, or F. Pepie; from LL. Pipita, fr. L. Pituita slime, phlegm, rheum, in fowls, the pip. Cf. Pituite.

<botany> A seed, as of an apple or orange.

Origin: Formerly pippin, pepin. Cf. Pippin.

(01 Mar 1998)