-oid

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  -oid \-oid\ (-oid) suff. [Gr. ?, fr. e'i^dos form, akin to ? to
     see, and E. wit: cf. F. -o["i]de, L. -o["i]des.]
     A suffix or combining form meaning like, resembling, in the
     form of; as in anthropoid, asteroid, spheroid.
     [1913 Webster]



From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:

  OID
       Object IDentifier (OSI)
       
       

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  -oid suff. [from Greek suffix -oid = `in the image of'] 1. Used as in
     mainstream slang English to indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or
     some otherwise slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will happily use it
     with all sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that wouldn't keep company
     with it in mainstream English. For example, "He's a nerdoid" means that
     he superficially resembles a nerd but can't make the grade; a `modemoid'
     might be a 300-baud box (Real Modems run at 28.8 or up); a `computeroid'
     might be any {bitty box}. The word `keyboid' could be used to describe a
     {chiclet keyboard}, but would have to be written; spoken, it would
     confuse the listener as to the speaker's city of origin. 2. More
     specifically, an indicator for `resembling an android' which in the past
     has been confined to science-fiction fans and hackers. It too has
     recently (in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in the term
     `trendoid' for victims of terminal hipness). This is probably traceable
     to the popularization of the term {droid} in "Star Wars" and its
     sequels. (See also {windoid}.)
  
     Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at
     least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have probably
     been making `-oid' jargon for almost that long [though GLS and I can
     personally confirm only that they were already common in the mid-1970s
     --ESR].
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  OID
       
          {object identifier}
       
       

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  -oid
       
           (from "android") A suffix used as in mainstream
          English to indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or some
          otherwise slightly bogus resemblance.  Hackers will happily
          use it with all sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that
          wouldn't keep company with it in mainstream English.  For
          example, "He's a nerdoid" means that he superficially
          resembles a nerd but can't make the grade; a "modemoid" might
          be a 300-baud {modem} (Real Modems run at 144000 or up); a
          "computeroid" might be any {bitty box}.
       
          "-oid" can also mean "resembling an android", which was once
          confined to science-fiction fans and hackers.  It too has
          recently (in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in
          the term "trendoid" for victims of terminal hipness).  This is
          probably traceable to the popularisation of the term {droid}
          in "Star Wars" and its sequels.
       
          Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for
          at least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have
          probably been making "-oid" jargon for almost that long
          (though {GLS} and {ESR} can personally confirm only that they
          were already common in the mid-1970s).
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1999-07-10)