Wannabee

3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  wannabee
       n : an ambitious and aspiring young person; "a lofty aspirant";
           "two executive hopefuls joined the firm"; "the audience
           was full of Madonna wannabes" [syn: {aspirant}, {aspirer},
            {hopeful}, {wannabe}]



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

  wannabee /won'*-bee/ n. (also, more plausibly, spelled `wannabe') [from
     a term recently used to describe Madonna fans who dress, talk, and act
     like their idol; prob. originally from biker slang] A would-be {hacker}.
     The connotations of this term differ sharply depending on the age and
     exposure of the subject. Used of a person who is in or might be entering
     {larval stage}, it is semi-approving; such wannabees can be annoying but
     most hackers remember that they, too, were once such creatures. When
     used of any professional programmer, CS academic, writer, or {suit}, it
     is derogatory, implying that said person is trying to cuddle up to the
     hacker mystique but doesn't, fundamentally, have a prayer of
     understanding what it is all about. Overuse of terms from this lexicon
     is often an indication of the {wannabee} nature. Compare {newbie}.
  
     Historical note: The wannabee phenomenon has a slightly different
     flavor now (1993) than it did ten or fifteen years ago. When the people
     who are now hackerdom's tribal elders were in {larval stage}, the
     process of becoming a hacker was largely unconscious and unaffected by
     models known in popular culture -- communities formed spontaneously
     around people who, _as individuals_, felt irresistibly drawn to do
     hackerly things, and what wannabees experienced was a fairly pure,
     skill-focused desire to become similarly wizardly. Those days of
     innocence are gone forever; society's adaptation to the advent of the
     microcomputer after 1980 included the elevation of the hacker as a new
     kind of folk hero, and the result is that some people semi-consciously
     set out to _be hackers_ and borrow hackish prestige by fitting the
     popular image of hackers. Fortunately, to do this really well, one has
     to actually become a wizard. Nevertheless, old-time hackers tend to
     share a poorly articulated disquiet about the change; among other
     things, it gives them mixed feelings about the effects of public
     compendia of lore like this one.
  
  

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

  wannabee
       
          /won'*-bee/ (Or, more plausibly, spelled "wannabe") [Madonna
          fans who dress, talk, and act like their idol; probably
          originally from biker slang] A would-be {hacker}.  The
          connotations of this term differ sharply depending on the age
          and exposure of the subject.  Used of a person who is in or
          might be entering {larval stage}, it is semi-approving; such
          wannabees can be annoying but most hackers remember that they,
          too, were once such creatures.  When used of any professional
          programmer, CS academic, writer, or {suit}, it is derogatory,
          implying that said person is trying to cuddle up to the hacker
          mystique but doesn't, fundamentally, have a prayer of
          understanding what it is all about.  Overuse of hacker terms
          is often an indication of the {wannabee} nature.  Compare
          {newbie}.
       
          Historical note: The wannabee phenomenon has a slightly
          different flavour now (1993) than it did ten or fifteen years
          ago.  When the people who are now hackerdom's tribal elders
          were in {larval stage}, the process of becoming a hacker was
          largely unconscious and unaffected by models known in popular
          culture - communities formed spontaneously around people who,
          *as individuals*, felt irresistibly drawn to do hackerly
          things, and what wannabees experienced was a fairly pure,
          skill-focussed desire to become similarly wizardly.  Those
          days of innocence are gone forever; society's adaptation to
          the advent of the microcomputer after 1980 included the
          elevation of the hacker as a new kind of folk hero, and the
          result is that some people semi-consciously set out to *be
          hackers* and borrow hackish prestige by fitting the popular
          image of hackers.  Fortunately, to do this really well, one
          has to actually become a wizard.  Nevertheless, old-time
          hackers tend to share a poorly articulated disquiet about the
          change; among other things, it gives them mixed feelings about
          the effects of public compendia of lore like this one.
       
          [{Jargon File}]