[TUHS] Unix, eunuchs?

[Paul Osborne]

I just took a quick look in the OED - which for those of us in the UK is
the definitive reference dictionary anyway here is the entry:

Unix, n.

Computing.

(ju:niks)  Also UNIX. [f. as a play on the earlier *MULTICS n., with
uni- one for multi- many (after the relative compactness of the newer
system) and with phonetic respelling of -ics as -ix.]

    A proprietary name for a multi-user operating system orig. designed
for use with minicomputers.


1973 Bell Lab. Rec. LI. 200 Some of the concepts, especially for
file-handling, appeared in a time-shared operating system called UNIX,
which was designed and implemented at Bell Labs. 1978 Bell Syst. Techn.
Jrnl. LVII. 1991 C..is sufficiently expressive and efficient to have
completely displaced assembly language programming on UNIX. 1983
Austral. Personal Computer Aug. 66/2 Xenix, the Microsoft implementation
of Unix disk operating systems for microcomputers. 1985 Official Gaz.
(U.S. Patent Office) 29 Oct. TM63/1 UNIX...For computer programs...
First use 12-14-1972. 1986 Trade Marks Jrnl. 5 Mar. 522/2 Unix..Computer
programmes, computing apparatus; [etc.] 1989 N.Y. Times 25 Oct. D1/4 A
wider industry agreement on a single Unix standard would also increase
the possibility that Unix will be widely adopted in the business
computer market.


NOTE: I had to tweak the pronunciation a tad to work in plain text. :-)

I guess if Ken/Dennis think that it needs correcting in any way they
will need to contact the OED...

--Paul
--yays for academic access to the OED