ETAOIN SHRDLU
ETAOIN SHRDLU (English pronunciation: /ˈɛtiˌɔɪn ˈʃɜrdlu/[1]) is a nonsense phrase that sometimes appeared in print in the days of "hot type" publishing because of a custom of Linotype machine operators. It appeared frequently enough that it became part of the lore of newspapers. A documentary about the last issue of The New York Times to be composed in the hot-metal printing process (2 July 1978) was titled Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu.[2]
It is the approximate order of frequency of the 12 most commonly used letters in the English language.
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[edit] Linotype history
The letters on Linotype keyboards were arranged by letter frequency, so "etaoin shrdlu" were the first two vertical columns on the left side of the keyboard. Linotype operators who had made a typing error could not go back to delete it, and had to finish the line before they could eject the slug and re-key a new one. Since the line with the error would be discarded and hence its contents did not matter, the quickest way to finish the line was to run a finger down the keys — a "run down", as it was termed — creating this nonsense phrase.
If the slug with the error made it as far as the compositors, the distinctive set of letters served to quickly identify it for removal. Occasionally, however, the phrase would be overlooked and be printed erroneously. This happened often enough for ETAOIN SHRDLU to be listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and in the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
[edit] Appearance outside typography
- SHRDLU was used in 1972 by Terry Winograd as the name for an early artificial-intelligence system in Lisp.
- The ETAOIN SHRDLU Chess Program was written by Garth Courtois Jr. for the Nova 1200 mini-computer; competing in the 6th and 7th ACM North American Computer Chess Championship 1975 and 1976.[3]
- Etaoin Shrdlu, or a portion of the phrase, is the name of a character in many works of fiction, including: Elmer Rice's 1923 play The Adding Machine, Charles G. Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, Crockett Johnson's comic strip Barnaby, Bill Holman's comic strip Smokey Stover, Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo, and the novel Psychoshop by Roger Zelazny and Alfred Bester.
- Etaoins is used in James Thurber's 1931 Owl in the Attic to indicate the incompetence of a Linotyper.
- Etaoin Shrdlu is used several times in H. Beam Piper's science fiction novel Four Day Planet as imaginative "profanity" that could still be published in 1950s era magazines, e.g.: "That's a double two-em-dashed lie, you etaoin shrdlu so-and-so!"[4]
- In 1942 Etaoin Shrdlu was the title of a short story by Fredric Brown about a sentient Linotype machine. (A sequel, Son of Etaoin Shrdlu: More Adventures in Typer and Space, was written by others in 1981.)
- Anthony Armstrong's 1945 whimsical short story "Etaoin and Shrdlu" ends "And Sir Etaoin and Shrdlu married and lived so happily ever after that whenever you come across Etaoin's name even today it's generally followed by Shrdlu's".
- It was used as part of the masthead for MAD Magazine.
- Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979) includes a dialogue entitled "SHRDLU, Toy of Man's Designing" between fictional programmer "Eta Oin" and the artificial-intelligence program SHRDLU.
- In The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve, four titles — "JATP Blues", "Blues for Norman", "Jam Blues" and "The Opener" — are credited to Shrdlu, and "The Closer" is credited to Etaoin. Etaoin is also credited as the composer for "Blues" on the original 1944 10" LP Jazz at the Philharmonic (Mercury/Clef MG35005).
- Herb Caen claimed that the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper was nicknamed the Etaoin Shrdlu because of its questionable production standards.
- The French version, "elaoin sdrétu", was used as the name of a robot in the Petit Noël comics of André Franquin.
- Etienne Cherdlu is a character in Thomas Pynchon's story "The secret integration" (contained in the collection of Pynchon's early stories ("Slow Learner")).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Etaoin Shrdlu" Dictionary.com 2011 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Etaoin+Shrdlu. Retrieved 12 Sept 2011
- ^ EMC: Abstract: Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu
- ^ Garth Courtois Jr wikispaces profile
- ^ Piper, H. Beam. Four Day Planet. p. 59. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19478/19478-h/19478-h.htm#C5.
[edit] External links
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