Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!uwvax!oddjob!mimsy!chris From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: TeX pronounciation Keywords: How, why? Message-ID: <13609@mimsy.UUCP> Date: 18 Sep 88 21:15:59 GMT References: <374@polyof.UUCP> <3470@phri.UUCP> <29780@bbn.COM> Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742 Lines: 36 >In article <3470@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: >> The official line is something along these lines. The spelling of >>TeX is not actually Tee-Eee-Eks, but the Greek Tau-Epsilon-Chi and is >>pronounced Tech which sort of rhymes with bleech. In article <29780@bbn.COM> cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) writes: >I know this thread is (thankfully) dead, Not anymore. :-) >but let me point out that this whole folk etymology Knuth goes through, >greek letters and other such nonsense to steer clear of a Honeywell >product, Why assume that the purpose is `to steer clear of a Honeywell product'? It seems to me, having seen other examples of Knuth's humour, that the reason for the `folk etymology' is because Knuth likes tieing technology and history and languages and typesetting all together into a Gordian Knot. (See if you can spot both Knuth-ism in the previous sentence.) >is surely a bit suspect around the edges. Finding the *real* edges will surely keep you on your toes. But Knuth obviously likes it that way. >... in [any] case the "it's all Greek" shaggy dog story is extraneous, no? Partly. Note that TeX is written in WEB, and WEB is translated to TeX by `weave'. The Greek `teknologos' (if I have not mangled it too badly), a computer word if there ever was one, is spelled tau-epsilon-chi-etc. But the Latin imperative form of `to weave' is spelled `texe'! See how neatly it all folds in upon itself? :-) -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris