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From: adam@irvine.com
Subject: Re: What is a queue?
Date: 1999/02/10
Date: 1999-02-10T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <79qmk5$amc$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 79q1qc$blj@top.mitre.org

In article <79q1qc$blj@top.mitre.org>,
  mfb@mbunix.mitre.org (Michael F Brenner) wrote:

> The word queue derives from the British cultural tradition of
> people lining up to get some service. The service is represented
> mathematically by a giant circle, and the people lining up look
> like a straight or curly line. Thus, the two together look like a
> giant letter Q, which was then spelt queue to make it sound
> difficult to spell, which it is. . . .

Hmmm, my Merriam-Webster's Ninth New Collegiate (1984) gives "French,
literally, tail" as the origin of the word.

				-- Adam

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  reply	other threads:[~1999-02-10  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1999-01-25  0:00 What is a queue? Joshua Shriver
1999-01-26  0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-02  0:00   ` Nick Roberts
1999-02-09  0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1999-02-10  0:00   ` adam [this message]
1999-02-10  0:00     ` Fraser Wilson
1999-02-10  0:00   ` Jeff Carter
1999-02-17  0:00     ` Michael F Brenner
1999-02-18  0:00       ` robert_dewar
1999-02-19  0:00       ` Jeff Carter
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