foo

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fuː/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophone: -fu

From Mandarin 府 (fǔ).

foo (plural foos)

1. (historical, obsolete) Alternative form of fu: an administrative subdivision of imperial China; the capital of such divisions.

foo is presumably based on the fu character (fú, 福)

From Chinese 福 (fú, “fortunate; prosperity, good luck”), via its use as 福星 (Fúxīng, “Jupiter”) in Chinese statues of the Three Lucky Stars, picked up from c. 1935 as a nonsense word in Bill Holman's Smokey Stover comic strip,[1][2][3] whence it was picked up by Pogo, Looney Tunes, and others. Used by Jack Speer as the fannish ghod of mimeography. Popularized in computing contexts by the Tech Model Railroad Club's 1959 Dictionary of the TMRC Language, which incorporated it into a parody of the Hindu chant om mani padme hum,[1] possibly under the influence of WWII military slang fubar, which had been repopularized by Joseph Heller's Catch-22.

foo (uncountable)

1. (programming) A metasyntactic variable used to represent an unspecified entity. If part of a series of such entities, it is often the first in the series, and followed immediately by bar.

   Suppose we have two objects, foo and bar.

2. (fandom slang) Alternative letter-case form of Foo (“placeholder god”)

• foobar

• FUBAR

A minced form of fuck.

foo

1. Expression of disappointment or disgust.

   Oh foo – the cake burnt!

• (expression of disgust): darn, drat

• foo'

foo (plural foos)

1. (slang) Eye dialect spelling of fool.

• rfc:3092, Etymology of "Foo", Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

• oof

From the oblique stem of Old English ġefāh.

foo (plural foos)

1. Alternative form of fo

From Old English fā, variant of fāh.

foo

1. Alternative form of fo

foo

1. Alternative form of fo

foo

1. to stink