feep
/feep/ 1. The soft electronic "bell" sound of a display terminal (except for a
VT-52); a beep (in fact, the microcomputer world seems to prefer beep).
2. To cause the display to make a feep sound. ASR-33s (the original TTYs) do not
feep; they have mechanical bells that ring. Alternate forms: beep, "bleep", or
just about anything suitably onomatopoeic. (Jeff MacNelly, in his comic strip
"Shoe", uses the word "eep" for sounds made by computer terminals and video
games; this is perhaps the closest written approximation yet.) The term
"breedle" was sometimes heard at SAIL, where the terminal bleepers are not
particularly soft (they sound more like the musical equivalent of a raspberry or
Bronx cheer; for a close approximation, imagine the sound of a Star Trek
communicator's beep lasting for five seconds). The "feeper" on a VT-52 has been
compared to the sound of a '52 Chevy stripping its gears. See also ding.
[Jargon File]
Nearby terms:
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» feeper » feeping creature » feeping creaturism
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