Related:

• hud n. 1. Yet another metasyntactic variable (see foo).
  It is reported that at CMU from the mid-1970s the canonical series of these was `foo', `bar', `thud', `blat'....
• metasyntactic variable n. A name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion.
  The word foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use `foo' or other words like it as permanent names for anything....
• blat n. 1. Syn. blast, sense 1. 2. See thud.
• gorp: /gorp/ [CMU: perhaps from the canonical hiker's food, Good Old Raisins and Peanuts] Another {metasyntactic variable}, like {foo} and {bar}.
  -- The AI Hackers Dictionary...
• foo /foo/ 1. interj. Term of disgust. 2. [very common] Used very generally as a sample name for absolutely anything, esp.
  programs and files (esp. scratch files). 3. First on the standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples....
• bar /bar/ n. 1. [very common] The second metasyntactic variable, after foo and before .
  ..." 2. Often appended to foo to produce foobar....
• plat n. 1. Name used in many places (DEC, IBM, and others) for the asterisk (*) character (ASCII 0101010).
  This may derive from the `squashed-bug' appearance of the asterisk on many early line printers....
• qux: /kwuhks/ The fourth of the standard {metasyntactic variable}, after {baz} and before the quu(u.
  ..)x series. See {foo}, {bar}, {baz}, {quux}. This appears to be a recent mutation from {quux}, and many versions (especially older versions) of the standard series just run {foo}, {bar}, {baz}, {quux}, ....
• amper n. Common abbreviation for the name of the ampersand (`&
  ', ASCII 0100110) character. See ASCII for other synonyms....